Portrait of Jean McVitty 1919

Robert Henri painted this portrait of Jean McVitty with oil on canvas, and looking at it, I can imagine him stepping back, squinting, and then leaning in again, probably multiple times. There’s something incredibly tender about this work, right? I mean, the thick strokes of pink across her shawl, the way the colors blend softly around her face. It’s like Henri is trying to capture something fleeting, a kind of innocence, or maybe just the way the light catches a child’s features for a moment. Henri was one of the group of painters called The Eight, and like them he wanted to capture everyday life, and celebrate the beauty of the ordinary. What I love about portraiture like this is how painters are in conversation across time, you know, looking back at Rembrandt and Hals, but also pushing forward, trying to see something new. For Henri, like a lot of us painters, it’s about figuring out how paint can make the intangible visible.