Dutch Girl Laughing

In 1907 Robert Henri took a group of students to Haarlem, Holland where he taught a class and worked on his own painting. Henri was fascinated by the Dutch people, particularly the children. He found strong inspiration in the work of Frans Hals (c. 1581-1666) whose 16th-century portraits showed lower class sitters with expressive faces painted in thick, visible brushwork. The summer of 1907 Henri focused his efforts on creating informal portraits of two Dutch girls. He painted them with amazing speed, producing from one to three portraits each day. This rapid pace enabled Henri to capture the energetic, spontaneous brushwork he admired in works by Hals and the French Impressionists. _Dutch Girl Laughing_ also illustrates the artist's typical use of heavy impasto, dramatic lighting, strong contrasts of light and dark, a somber palette, and surface highlights.

Originally titled _Laughing Dutch Boy_ when it was exhibited in 1909, this portrait caused a lot of discussion among Henri scholars as to the gender of the child portrayed. The artist's biographer, Bennard Perlman, conclusively identified the child through study of the artist's diary and letters as Cori Peterson, a young girl. Henri painted nearly two dozen portraits of Cori while visiting Holland in 1907. He described his jovial muse in several letters saying, “One of my two models is a little white-headed, broad-faced, red-cheeked girl of about eight—always laughing.”

This charming portrayal was exhibited at the 1909 Texas State Fair and subsequently purchased by the Dallas Art Association. At the time, Henri's technique and selection of lower-class subject matter was considered the cutting edge of modern art in America.

**Adapted from**

* Eleanor Jones Harvey, DMA label copy (1909.2), August 1993.
* William Keyse Rudolph, DMA label copy (1909.2), August 2005.
* Debra Gibney, “Highlights of the American Collection,” in _Dallas Museum of Art 100 Years_, eds. Dorothy Kosinski, et al. (Dallas, TX: Dallas Museum of Art, 2003), 48.
* P.F.R., DMA research document, n.d., Collections Records Object File.