Provenance
(Chapellier Galleries, New York), by 1969; Mr. [d. 1994] and Mrs. [d. 1991] Gerard C. Smith, Washington, D.C.; gift 1973 to NGA.
Accession Number
1973.70.1
Medium
oil on canvas
Dimensions
overall: 51 x 61.1 cm (20 1/16 x 24 1/16 in.) | framed: 73.7 x 83.8 x 6.4 cm (29 x 33 x 2 1/2 in.)
Classification
Painting
Credit Line
Gift of Mr. and Mrs. Gerard C. Smith
Tags
Painting Early Modern (1901–1950) Oil Painting Canvas American
Background & Context
Background Story
Robert Henri (1865-1929) was an American painter and teacher, the leader of the Ash Can School known for his urban scenes and portraits that combined vigorous brushwork with democratic subject matter. Volendam Street Scene from 1910 depicts a street in the Dutch fishing village of Volendam in the vigorous, spontaneous manner that distinguishes Henri's best work. The 1910 date places this in Henri's most productive period, when he was producing the portraits and landscapes that made him the leader of American Realism, and the Volendam subject reflects Henri's European travels to the Netherlands.
Cultural Impact
Volendam Street Scene is important in Henri's European oeuvre because it demonstrates the vigorous brushwork and spontaneous manner that he brought to his European subjects as well as his American ones. The 1910 painting shows Henri applying the Ash Can manner to a Dutch fishing village, creating a type of European landscape that is simultaneously vigorous in brushwork and democratic in subject matter—the same combination that made him the leader of American Realism.
Why It Matters
Volendam Street Scene is Henri's Ash Can vigor in a Dutch village: a Volendam street rendered with the spontaneous brushwork and democratic subject matter that distinguish the leader of American Realism. The 1910 painting shows Henri applying the Ash Can manner to European subjects with the same vitality he brought to American urban scenes.
