Robert Henri (1865–1929)

ROBERT HENRI (1865–1929)
Sunlight in the Woods, 1918
Pastel on buff paper, 15 1/4 x 19 in.
Signed (at lower right): Robert Henri

In 1903, seeking a location where he could “work and loaf by turns,” Henri spent the summer in the picturesque fishing village of Boothbay Harbor at the invitation of his fellow artist, Edward Redfield, an old friend from his student days in Philadelphia. Henri and Redfield explored the Maine Coast on fishing expeditions, but Henri also took the opportunity to paint for pleasure, producing plein-air oils in which he studied the transitional effects of weather on land, sea, and clouds. However, despite the charms of Boothbay Harbor, Henri was disappointed that the village and its environs were “not as rugged and strong” as he had anticipated. Fortunately, his desire for a more dramatic setting was quickly satisfied in mid-July, when he and his wife Linda boarded a local schooner for the island of Monhegan, a tiny, whale-shaped land mass located about 17 miles from the coast.  While the western side of the 1.7 mile long island was populated by a few fishermen and their families and the occasional small hotel and boarding house, Monhegan was, and continues to be, an isolated locale known for its rough waters and elemental beauty.

Henri was delighted with what he found.  Writing enthusiastically to his parents on July 12, 1903, he described Monhegan as the “real thing” and declared that he had:

never seen anything so fine ... from the great cliffs you look down on a mighty surf battering away at rocks––or you can descend and get a side view of the cliffs from lower rocks and then you can disappear from the sea into the pine forests––they are wild. The village is on the inland side—a little harbor shielded by a small island––simply a huge mass of rock. It is a wonderful place to paint––so much in so small a place one can hardly believe it.

During that initial visit to Monhegan, which lasted only four days, Henri explored the island thoroughly, hiking along its steep granite cliffs, rock-strewn beaches, and virgin forests.  Inspired by the area’s unspoiled scenery, he created twenty-five oil sketches on wood panels (considerably more than he had produced in Boothbay Harbor), among them such vigorously rendered littoral subjects as Monhegan Island (Farnsworth Art Museum, Rockland, Maine) and Storm Tide (Whitney Museum of American Art, New York). 

While Henri had anticipated making regular visits to Monhegan in the ensuing years, his hectic schedule of exhibiting and teaching in New York, his travels abroad, and Linda’s death in 1905 prevented him from doing so. To be sure, although his zeal for Monhegan never wavered––so much so that he urged Bellows, Kent, and Hopper to paint there as well––Henri did not return to the island until August 1911, when he spent several weeks painting landscapes and seascapes in the company of Bellows and Randall Davey.

Henri’s next recorded trip to Monhegan occurred in August 1918, when the country was still at war. Since access to the coast was prohibited by patrolling naval ships, he retreated inland to the “wild” forests that had attracted him so long ago––specifically, Cathedral Woods, a magical place on the eastern side of the island that was populated by stately spruce, birch, and oak trees interspersed with moss-covered boulders, lush ferns, berry bushes, and rocky terrain carpeted by fir needles. Cathedral Woods provided visitors and residents alike with a peaceful respite from the churning waters and fierce winds of the northern Atlantic. And for city dwellers such as Henri, this primeval place afforded him the opportunity to paint trees, a motif that he held in high esteem, having informed his students that “in  a tree there is a spirit of life, a spirit of growth, and a spirit of holding its head up."