Woodland Scene, Monhegan, Maine 1918

Robert Henri made this "Woodland Scene" in Monhegan, Maine, using what looks like very soft pastels. The mark making here is all about directness, an embrace of process. Henri wasn't trying to hide anything. You can see the strokes, the way the pastel crumbled a bit as he laid down the greens and browns of the forest. The texture of the paper is part of the image, too. It's not slick or polished, but it has a real immediacy. Look at the way he built up the tree trunks with short, hatched lines. They're not perfectly blended. You get a sense of the speed and energy he brought to it. And the pops of orange? They really zing against all that green. Henri, like, John Sloan, was interested in capturing the everyday. There’s a connection with what the Impressionists were doing in France, like a looser, more American take on the same impulse. But unlike a lot of the impressionists, Henri is less interested in the beauty of life than its grit. What does it mean to find beauty in the mundane?