Morning Reflections 1910

Robert Henri made this painting – Morning Reflections – with soft strokes, a muted palette of yellows and greens, and with what looks like charcoal or chalk. I can imagine Henri standing there, trying to capture the fleeting light of the morning. The paint is thin, almost transparent, which gives the scene a dreamy, ethereal quality. Look how the yellow sky melts into the buildings and street below. It’s like Henri is trying to paint a memory, not just a scene. Maybe he was thinking about Whistler or Turner – those guys loved to paint fog and atmosphere. There’s a solitary figure in the foreground wearing a bright red coat. That pop of color pulls the whole scene together. Painters, you know, we're all in conversation with each other, borrowing and stealing ideas across time. Henri was definitely part of that conversation, taking what he learned from the past and making something new. Painting at its best is just that – a way to see, think, and feel the world in all its messy, beautiful ambiguity.