This work belongs to a little­known group of paintings of nudes by Henri from the mid-teens to the early 1920s. They were posed, for the most part, by professional models and were executed as a means of studying the human body. In paintings such as this, Henri does not attempt to evoke associational values or use the girl’s facial expression to establish rapport with the viewer. She serves instead as a vehicle with which to explore the more abstract qualities of rhythm, color, and volume.
Artist Robert Cozad Henri, American, 1865 - 1929
Title
  • The Young Girl
Date 1915
Medium oil on canvas
Dimensions Unframed: 41 × 33 inches (104.1 × 83.8 cm)
Framed: 48 13/16 × 40 11/16 × 2 7/8 inches (124 × 103.3 × 7.3 cm)
Credit Line City of Detroit Purchase
Accession Number 19.148
Department American Art before 1950
On View Modern N200, Level 2 (see map)
Signed Signed, lower left: Robert Henri
Robert Henri;
1919-present, purchase by the Detroit Institute of Arts (Detroit, Michigan, USA)
Heitkamp, Ernest. "Paintings by Robert Henri." Bulletin of the DIA 1, 5 (February 1920): pp. 70-71.

Perlman, Bernard B. Robert Henri: His Life and Art. New York, 1991.

American Beauty: Painting and Sculpture from the Detroit Institute of Arts, 1770-1920. Exh. cat., Detroit Institute of Arts. Detroit, 2002, pp. 113-114, no. 84 (ill.).