Tom Cafferty

Robert Henri (1865–1929) was born "Robert Henry Cozad" on June 24, 1865, in Ohio. He came from a family of French Huguenot descent. His ancestors emigrated from Normandy, France, to the Netherlands before finally settling in the United States.^[2]

Tom Cafferty (1924) is an oil painting on canvas painted by Robert Henri during Henri’s second time on Achill Island, Ireland. Robert Henri(1865-1929) was an American portrait artist and a leader of the Ashcan School.^[3] While on Achill Island, he formed close relationships with the local kids and was inspired by this experience.^[4] Tom Cafferty was one of his Irish children portraits, which reflects the central artistic concept Henri had in his later years: he believed portraiture should capture the subject's real emotions and psychological state, rather than just reproduce their physical appearance at the same time, and the concept he regarded art as a process of self-exploration.^[5]

Before Robert Henri created Tom Cafferty in 1924, he had a few disappointments in his life. In 1913, at the time of the Armory Show, although Henri participated, he found himself having significant philosophical differences with the core organizers (such as Arthur B. Davies). The main disagreement was that the organizer wanted the exhibition to be an international, forward-looking art show, but Robert thought it should feature realist works of the American spirit. Consequently, though Robert remained the spiritually recognized leader of the Independent Art movement on the surface, he found himself excluded and marginalized. His ideas were misunderstood, and he began to doubt himself. ^[6]

During the winter of 1916-1917, the Russian Revolution had just started, with World War 1 was looming. Herni stopped creating art. He contributed to the propaganda anthology The Book of Homeless, whose proceeds funded its sales to support civilians displacement by World War I.^[7] Four days after the United States entered the war, Herni participated in an art exhibition titled "No Jury, No Prizes." Instead of openly criticizing the war or recording its scenes, Robert continued to emphasize individual expression and painting people in everyday life, and quietly expressing empathy for those who died in it. ^[8]

Robert Henri believes portraiture should capture the true emotional and psychological character of a subject, as opposed to a mere physical likeness. He believed that the soul of a person should be captured, and that an artist should dig beneath the surface of purely physical attributes in order to capture the true inner force that constitutes individuality.^[9] Henri taught that the artist's real objective was to convey the sitter's emotional essence and sense of living presence, not just academic or technical accuracy, even though the composition's lines and forms could be simplified.

Henry further believes that the artistic creation is an act of self-discovery, which he insists can only yield genuine expression when artists uncover their own unique identities and learn to trust this individuality as a source of inspiration. He says art can be thought of as a process of personal liberation and social affirmation of human dignity.^[9]