Robert Henri

Violet Organ (the artist's sister-in-law), Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
A.B. Closson, Jr. Co., Cincinnati, Ohio
Hirschl & Adler Galleries, New York
Dr. John J. McDonough, Youngstown, Ohio (sold: Sotheby Parke Bernet, New York, March 22, 1978, lot 38, illustrated, as Mary Patton in Rose Smock)

Cleveland, Ohio, Cleveland Museum of Art, Spring 1969
New Orleans, Louisiana, New Orleans Museum of Art; San Diego, California, Fine Arts Gallery of San Diego; San Antonio, Texas, Marion Koogler McNay Art Institute; Little Rock, Arkansas, Arkansas Art Center; Greensburg, Pennsylvania, The Westmoreland County Museum of Art; Raleigh, North Carolina, The North Carolina Museum of Art; Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, Oklahoma Art Center; Youngstown, Ohio, The Butler Institute of American Art, A Panorama of American Painting- The John J. McDonough Collection, April 1975-October 1976, no. 23, p. 98, illustrated pl. 40
Youngstown, Ohio, The Butler Institute of American Art, Triumph of Color & Light: Ohio Impressionists and Post-Impressionists, March-April 1995
Roslyn Harbor, New York, Nassau County Museum of Art, Old New York and the Artists of the Period 1900-1941, August-November 2001

This work is in very good condition. The canvas is unlined. There is frame abrasion at the edges. Under UV: there are a few small spots and dots of inpainting primarily in the upper left background and corner.
In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective qualified opinion.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING CONDITION OF A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD "AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF SALE PRINTED IN THE CATALOGUE.

During the 1920s, Robert Henri and his wife Marjorie made several trips to Ireland's scenic western coast. The artist first visited there in 1913, renting Corrymore House, located outside the village of Dooagh, and made agreements to purchase the house in 1924.  Henri revered children, writing, "I have never respected any man more than I have some children. In the faces of children I have seen a look of wisdom and kindness expressed with such ease and such certainty that I knew it was the expression of a whole race" (The Art Spirit, published posthumously in 1939, p. 242). The children he encountered in the local villages in Ireland possessed an unconventional aesthetic beauty that proved to be irresistible to an artist striving to capture the purest essence of his sitters and their unaffected dispositions. The village children were eager to sit for the artist and would enthusiastically trudge up the hill from their thatched cottages to Henri's spacious and welcoming home. The artist forged warm relationships with his models as his wife played music on the Victor Talking Machine or Victrola and promised tea and sandwiches when his sitters were finished posing. 

Mary Patton is a brilliant example of Henri’s Irish portraits. Henri delicately balances the sitter's youthful innocence with a keen awareness. The girl’s wide opened gaze confronts the viewer without guile, a look that evinces something of the authentic, unspoiled life, removed from the corrupting forces of the modern urban environment. Henri's children reveal a kindness and purity he believed was "an antidote to the evils of over sophistication that stifled man when he reached adulthood" (William Inness Homer, Robert Henri and his Circle, New York, 1988, p. 249).