As the leader of the Ashcan School, Robert Henri was one of the principal figures of early-twentieth century American art. Henri was a revolutionary; a powerful teacher and theorist, he urged American artists to reject the conventions of academicism and focus on real people and real places, returning art to the personal expression of feeling and sensation. Inspired by the work of Frans Hals, Rembrandt, and Velazquez, Henri painted portraits, landscapes, and urban scenes that carry a direct strength and intensity. He founded the Henri Art School in New York City in 1909 and was instrumental in organizing the key exhibitions of modern art: Macbeth Gallery’s show of “The Eight” in 1908, the Exhibition of Independent Artists of 1910, and the legendary Armory Show of 1913. His work is now in the Whitney Museum of American Art, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the National Gallery of Art, the Smithsonian American Art Museum, the White House, and the Tate Gallery in London.