In 1902 Robert Henri decided to dedicate himself to portraiture. Rather than taking commissions, he sought out his own subjects, painting people of diverse ages and nationalities. He traveled widely, making trips abroad as well as to the American West, including three productive visits to Santa Fe in 1916, 1917, and 1922. There he produced a sizable body of work depicting Latino and Native American subjects, including this portrait of Julianita, a schoolgirl from the San Ildefonso pueblo.
Henri first painted Julianita on his second trip to Santa Fe. He arrived in July and was initially frustrated by his inability to find compelling subjects and settle down to work. On August 19 he wrote to George Bellows of his continuing struggle: “I’m sorry . . . I haven’t done anything exceptional to show you so far. Shall have to work up or try to get one at least before you come.” By November 17, following Bellows’s visit, Henri finally expressed satisfaction to his friend: “[I] have been doing some since you left—got some good ones. Got a line of very beautiful Indian girls.” These included Julianita, a student at an Indian school located near Henri’s studio in the Palace of the Governors. Julianita also modeled for nine other portraits: five that fall and four painted when Henri returned to Santa Fe in 1922. Among the five other 1917 works is Indian Girl (Julianita) [fig. 1]
[fig. 1] Robert Henri, Indian Girl (Julianita), c. 1917, oil on canvas, Indianapolis Museum of Art, Gift of Mrs. John N. Carey, completed right before the present painting, in which Julianita appears wrapped in a brown silk shawl.
Henri frequently produced series of likenesses based on similar ideas, often using the same model, the same pose, or a similar compositional device. He first experimented with swathing his subject in a stark white wrap in a painting of the previous summer, Mexican Girl, (Maria) (1916, private collection, Kansas City, MO), which shows the model with a white cloth wrapped around her head. Henri also used the white blanket in two other portraits from 1917 that pre-date Indian Girl in White Blanket: first Maria (Lucinda) [fig. 2]
[fig. 2] Robert Henri, Maria (Lucinda in Wrap), c. 1917, oil on canvas, Collection of the New Mexico Museum of Art. Bequest of Helen Miller Jones, 1989 and then Gregorita, Indian of Santa Clara [fig. 3]
[fig. 3] Robert Henri, Gregorita, Indian of Santa Clara, 1917, oil on canvas, Gilcrease Museum, Tulsa. In the latter the blanket is loosely wrapped around the girl; its folds obscure her body and create an abstract design that nearly overwhelms other elements of the composition. Henri exploits the motif of the blanket to its fullest in Indian Girl in White Blanket by enveloping Julianita’s head and body more tightly. The thick folds of the fabric around her head and neck fall in concentric ovals that echo the shape of the sitter’s face, while the more angular creases across her body repeat the lines of the decorative blanket in the background. Together, the folds of the white blanket strike a balance between articulating Julianita’s form and creating visual interest in the composition as a whole.
During his three visits to Santa Fe Henri increasingly integrated Native American−inspired decorative elements into his compositions. Unlike other artists who painted in the Southwest, he was not interested in documenting Native American life, nor did he want to represent their material culture with an eye toward anthropology. Gregorita later recalled that Henri and his wife often posed the models and supplied the various accessories, including shawls and blankets. In at least 15 paintings, including Indian Girl in White Blanket, he used colorful blankets with geometric designs to enliven the compositions. As Henri himself noted, “I do not wish to explain these people, I do not wish to preach through them, I only want to find whatever of the great spirit there is in the Southwest. If I can hold it on my canvas, I am satisfied.”
The fall and winter of 1917 constituted one of the most creative and productive periods in Henri’s career. Despite his slow start, the season resulted in a number of his most important portraits of Native Americans, including Indian Girl in White Blanket. As Henri noted, “I didn’t really get above average until towards the end—then things began to happen and they happened right along to the end. . . . Had I quit at the end of the usual summer term I should have been nowhere.” By the conclusion of the 1917 Santa Fe sojourn he had completed more than 100 major works, 76 of which were portraits.
Indian Girl in White Blanket was first included in the inaugural exhibition of the New Mexico Museum’s new art gallery in 1917. The work then appeared at a number of venues in New York; Baltimore; and Columbus, Ohio; where critics pointed to its bold, vigorous brushwork and its characterization of southwestern life. One critic in particular noted that Henri’s works were not too literal and praised his ability to express a “vivid appreciation for the spirit of the being he interprets.” Indian Girl in White Blanket was later featured in the Corcoran’s Ninth Exhibition of Contemporary American Oil Paintings in 1923, where it was one of the audience favorites. It was purchased by the gallery that year and was among the earliest acquisitions by a museum of Henri’s southwestern subjects.
Valerie Ann Leeds
August 17, 2018
