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Robert Henri,(pronounced HEN-rye) one of America’s greatest artists, had a Nebraska connection which remained unknown until the 1950s. Born Robert Henry Cozad in Cincinnati, Ohio in 1865, he came to Dawson County, Nebraska at the age of eight. His father, John J. Cozad founded the town of Cozad in 1873. The outcome of a legal dispute with neighbors ended with a death and caused the elder Cozad to leave Nebraska in 1882. His family soon followed. The family settled in Atlantic City, New Jersey. The father changed his name to Richard Henry Lee, and Robert and his brother posed as foster sons, taking the names Robert Henry (later Henri) and Frank Sothern. In 1886 Robert Henri enrolled in an art school in Philadelphia and then studied three years in Paris. After teaching in Philadelphia at the Woman’s School of Design, Henri returned to Paris and lived there several years. Henri taught at various academies and founded the Henri School. He was the leader of the “Ash Can” group who pioneered realistic paintings and who believed that artists should have freedom of expression in art. A book about Henri, The Art Spirit by Marge Ryerson, is well-known to art students and to art lovers. Mari Sandoz wrote a novel, Son of a Gambling Man, which is based on Robert Henri’s Nebraska childhood. Henri died in New York City on July 12, 1929.
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