Robert Henri (American, 1865–1929). <em>Laughing Girl</em>, 1910. Oil on canvas, 24 1/8 × 20 1/8 in. (61.2 × 51.1 cm). Brooklyn Museum, Frank Sherman Benson Fund, 12.93 (Photo: Brooklyn Museum, 12.93_PS22.jpg)

Robert Henri (American, 1865–1929). Laughing Girl, 1910. Oil on canvas, 24 1/8 × 20 1/8 in. (61.2 × 51.1 cm). Brooklyn Museum, Frank Sherman Benson Fund, 12.93 (Photo: Brooklyn Museum, 12.93_PS22.jpg)

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Laughing Girl

Robert Henri

American Art

On View: American Art Galleries, 5th Floor, Witness

In the summers of 1907 and 1910, Robert Henri traveled with his students from the New York School of Art to Haarlem, Netherlands, where he produced a series of canvases inspired by the children he encountered there. This lively rendering, executed swiftly in loose, broad brushstrokes, captures his sitter’s personality and exuberance. The work’s seeming spontaneity belies the extent to which the artist engaged with typing—in this case stereotypes of jolly Dutch children. The portrayal of types was largely indebted to the seventeenth-century Dutch painter Frans Hals, admired and emulated by Henri and by nineteenth-century Realists in France and Munich. Henri maintained a career-long interest in painting children, inspired by his travels abroad and in the United States.

ARTIST Robert Henri, American, 1865–1929

MEDIUM Oil on canvas

DATES 1910

DIMENSIONS 24 1/8 × 20 1/8 in. (61.2 × 51.1 cm) frame: 34 1/2 × 31 × 4 3/8 in. (87.6 × 78.7 × 11.1 cm) (show scale)

SIGNATURE Signed lower right: "Robert Henri"

INSCRIPTIONS Inscribed verso, in black paint, prior to 1943 relining: "101/F"

COLLECTIONS American Art

ACCESSION NUMBER 12.93

CREDIT LINE Frank Sherman Benson Fund

PROVENANCE Februrary 3, 1912, purchased from the artist via Macbeth Gallery, New York, NY by the Brooklyn Museum.

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MUSEUM LOCATION This item is on view in American Art Galleries, 5th Floor, Witness

CAPTION Robert Henri (American, 1865–1929). Laughing Girl, 1910. Oil on canvas, 24 1/8 × 20 1/8 in. (61.2 × 51.1 cm). Brooklyn Museum, Frank Sherman Benson Fund, 12.93 (Photo: Brooklyn Museum, 12.93_PS22.jpg)

IMAGE overall, 12.93_PS22.jpg. Brooklyn Museum photograph, 2024

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