Lady in Black with Spanish Scarf (O in Black with a Scarf)

The woman depicted in this painting is Robert Henri’s wife, Marjorie Organ, whom he often affectionately referred to as “O.” Organ was a cartoonist for the New York Journal and an active member of Dress Reform Movement, a group with feminist and health concerns that rejected fashions containing restrictive whalebone corsets and bustles. Henri used vigorous, fluid brushstrokes to present his wife as a strong, liberated woman, clothed in loose, modern attire, who gazes directly and confidently at the viewer. Robert Henri was an American painter and teacher. He was a leading figure of the Ashcan School of American realism and an organizer of the group known as "The Eight," a loose association of artists who protested the restrictive exhibition practices of the powerful, conservative National Academy of Design.