1904 (ca.), Robert Henri, Lady in Black with Spanish Scarf (O in Black with a Scarf) -- de Young Museum (San Francisco)
From the museum label:
A leading force in American realism, Robert Henri encouraged his students and fellow Ashcan School artists to depict their lived experiences. The subject of this sensual portrait is Henri's wife and former student, Marjorie Organ, an accomplished cartoonist who exhibited drawings at the 1913 New York International Exhibition of Modern Art, or Armory Show. As the painting's title suggests, Henri referred to his beloved as simply "O."
With her hip thrust forward, O appears here as an irrepressible force. The contours of her profile are emphasized by the flowing lines of her uncorseted black dress, while her auburn hair is swept into an updo associated with the popular Gibson Girl style. Based on the illustrations of Charles Dana Gibson, the Gibson Girl archetype emerged in the 1890s and represented a new standard of white feminine beauty that came to be associated with the progressive ideals of the modern independent woman.
1904 (ca.), Robert Henri, Lady in Black with Spanish Scarf (O in Black with a Scarf) -- de Young Museum (San Francisco)
From the museum label:
A leading force in American realism, Robert Henri encouraged his students and fellow Ashcan School artists to depict their lived experiences. The subject of this sensual portrait is Henri's wife and former student, Marjorie Organ, an accomplished cartoonist who exhibited drawings at the 1913 New York International Exhibition of Modern Art, or Armory Show. As the painting's title suggests, Henri referred to his beloved as simply "O."
With her hip thrust forward, O appears here as an irrepressible force. The contours of her profile are emphasized by the flowing lines of her uncorseted black dress, while her auburn hair is swept into an updo associated with the popular Gibson Girl style. Based on the illustrations of Charles Dana Gibson, the Gibson Girl archetype emerged in the 1890s and represented a new standard of white feminine beauty that came to be associated with the progressive ideals of the modern independent woman.