Woman in Manteau
Brooklyn Museum photograph
Object Label
Painted in Paris at a time when Robert Henri was determined to make his professional mark as a young artist, this work—in a dark, smoky palette deliberately recalling European Old Masters—features his favorite model, Berthe Terrier. Although he intentionally allied his art with revered tradition, Henri also added a contemporary mood by portraying Terrier with a bold, almost defiant expression.
X-radiographs reveal that Henri repainted this work extensively as he struggled to capture his model’s anatomy. At an earlier stage (see illustration), the placement of the shawl exposed much more of her shoulders and bust. Such focus on the nude reflects the artist’s early academic training at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, where Thomas Eakins’s Realist tradition was still strongly felt.
Caption
Robert Henri American, 1865–1929. Woman in Manteau, 1898. Oil on canvas, 58 1/16 × 38 11/16 in. (147.5 × 98.3 cm) frame: 64 3/4 × 45 3/4 × 5 1/4 in. (164.5 × 116.2 × 13.3 cm). Brooklyn Museum, Gift of the National Academy of Design, 39.600. No known copyright restrictions (Photo: Brooklyn Museum, 39.600.jpg)
Gallery
Not on view
Collection
Gallery
Not on view
Collection
Artist
Title
Woman in Manteau
Date
1898
Medium
Oil on canvas
Classification
Dimensions
58 1/16 × 38 11/16 in. (147.5 × 98.3 cm) frame: 64 3/4 × 45 3/4 × 5 1/4 in. (164.5 × 116.2 × 13.3 cm)
Signatures
Signed lower left: "Robert Henri"
Inscriptions
Inscribed verso, before relining, top right quadrant, in black paint: ning: "A/31/1"; top left quadrant: "No. 2"
Credit Line
Gift of the National Academy of Design
Accession Number
39.600
Rights
No known copyright restrictions
This work may be in the public domain in the United States. Works created by United States and non-United States nationals published prior to 1923 are in the public domain, subject to the terms of any applicable treaty or agreement. You may download and use Brooklyn Museum images of this work. Please include caption information from this page and credit the Brooklyn Museum. If you need a high resolution file, please fill out our online application form (charges apply). The Museum does not warrant that the use of this work will not infringe on the rights of third parties, such as artists or artists' heirs holding the rights to the work. It is your responsibility to determine and satisfy copyright or other use restrictions before copying, transmitting, or making other use of protected items beyond that allowed by "fair use," as such term is understood under the United States Copyright Act. The Brooklyn Museum makes no representations or warranties with respect to the application or terms of any international agreement governing copyright protection in the United States for works created by foreign nationals. For further information about copyright, we recommend resources at the United States Library of Congress, Cornell University, Copyright and Cultural Institutions: Guidelines for U.S. Libraries, Archives, and Museums, and Copyright Watch. For more information about the Museum's rights project, including how rights types are assigned, please see our blog posts on copyright. If you have any information regarding this work and rights to it, please contact copyright@brooklynmuseum.org.
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