Three-quarter length portrait of a seated young woman wearing a red dress with green and gold…

La Madrileñita

Artist Robert Henri (American, 1865 - 1929)

Sitter Josefa Cruz (Spanish, born 1895)

Date1910

MediumOil on canvas

DimensionsCanvas: 41 × 33 3/16 inches (104.1 × 84.3 cm)
Framed: 48 5/8 × 40 5/8 × 3 3/8 inches (123.5 × 103.2 × 8.6 cm)

Credit LineMuseum purchase.

Object number1919.1

On View

On view

CopyrightThe images and text contained on this page are owned by Telfair Museums or used by the Museum with permission from the owners. Unauthorized reproduction, transmission or display of these materials is prohibited with the exception of items deemed “fair use” as defined by U.S. and international copyright laws.Label TextRobert Henri objected to pretty, sentimental painting, crusading to bring vitality and realism back to American painting at the turn of the 20th century. Henri advocated a painterly technique based on the bravura brushwork of 19th-century French painters like Édouard Manet and their 17th-century Spanish antecedents, most notably Diego Velázquez. Henri's admiration for Velázquez drew him to Spain, where he absorbed both the technique and subject matter of Spanish painters. Although he painted several portraits of this sitter, Henri wrote to the Telfair president, "I feel that you will have in the picture La Madrileñita, one of the very best things I have painted.… It was painted in Madrid. She is a very young girl, born and raised as a dancer.… [I]t seemed to me she had in her carriage at all times much of the spirit of dignity of Old Spain."

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