Portrait of Faith 1927

Robert Henri made this portrait, “Portrait of Faith,” with oil paint and probably a brush, maybe even a rag. I like to imagine him, squinting, stepping back, then lunging in, making a stroke, and then squinting again. He’s captured something fleeting and luminous in the girl’s gaze. The buttery brushstrokes of ochre and golden yellow create the impression of a child sitting in a shaft of light. Look at the girl’s small hands. They are a blur of blended tones, conveying movement and softness. Henri must have been thinking about Velazquez when he made this. The loose, painterly quality reminds us that a painting is not just an image, but an object made through touch and intuition. Every stroke is a record of a decision, a feeling, a thought. The red bow in her hair mirrors the small, almost gestural mark at the front of her yellow dress, as though the artist were answering one mark with another. That’s the thing about painting. It's a conversation, a dialogue, where the artist invites us to participate in the act of seeing and feeling.