Cozad's Favorite Son

 
   As I mentioned in my previous post my travels in August of this year included a visit to Cozad, Nebraska, birthplace of one of America's foremost 20th century painters and art instructors, one Robert Henri (pronounced "Hen-Rye").

   Robert Henri was born Robert Henry Cozad in Cozad, Nebraska, one of two towns in the midwest founded by his father, John Cozad. The story of why Robert Henri changed his name from Cozad to Henri is an engaging one involving his father shooting a neighboring rancher to death in 1882, his trial for murder and eventually being found not guilty, and the family's then having to leave Cozad and assume different identities due to the resultant ignominious cloud that descended upon the entire family despite the father's exoneration. 

   But that's not what this post is about. This post is about the Robert Henri Art Gallery that was opened in Cozad this past August. The Art Gallery was built right behind the Robert Henri Museum, which is housed in Henri's boyhood home which was restored in the early 1980's and has showcased the artist's life and work for the past 40 years.

   The new Art Gallery is around five times the size of the previous one, and was made possible by generous donations, a few grants, and some seriously tireless devotion to the cause of preserving Henri's work by an amazingly dedicated group of volunteers, museum board members, and professional art historians and curators.

   Presented here is just a small sample of the results of their efforts.

                          The East 9th street entrance to the Robert Henri Art Gallery in Cozad

                           A Portrait of Carl Gustave Waldeck, Oil on Canvas, Robert Henri 1896 

                             Dutch Girl with Sailor Hat, Oil on Canvas, Robert Henri circa 1907

                                      Normandie Interior, Oil on Canvas, Robert Henri 1897

                                        The Model Nude, Oil on Canvas, Robert Henri 1915

                           Nude in Blue Pencil, Pencil on Paper, Robert Henri date uncertain

                                      Carl (Karl Schleicher), Oil on Canvas, Robert Henri 1921

                                             Bridgeen, Oil on Canvas, Robert Henri 1927

                                  Spanish Woman LaMora, Oil on Canvas, Robert Henri 1902

                                  The Beach at Far Rockaway, Oil on Canvas, Robert Henri 1902

   There you are, an extremely small sampling of what is on offer at the new Robert Henri Art Gallery in Cozad, Nebraska.

   BTW, that last painting, The Beach at Far Rockaway, is one that really needs to be seen in person - I consider it one of the most vibrant, exciting plein air paintings I've ever seen.