Portrait of Margaret Gove

Date1915

Maker Robert Henri American, 1865-1929

Label TextPortraits often trace the path of inspiration in American art. Henri was a leading portrait painter and highly influential teacher who educated a sweeping generation of American artists. He dashed off this casual sketch of his student, Margaret Gove, as she posed for his class at the Art Students League in New York City. Shortly after he painted it, Gove moved to Seattle with her husband, the painter Peter Camfferman. In Seattle, she regularly exhibited work under Henri’s influence and just as regularly hosted visiting and local artists in her home on Whidbey Island. Her active involvement in the area’s small but thriving artistic scene helped give rise to the first Northwest school of American modernism.

Object number58.66

Photo CreditPhoto: Elizabeth Mann

Exhibition HistoryPeoria, Illinois, Lakeview Center for the Arts & Sciences, The Eight, 1969. Bellevue, Washington, Bellevue Art Museum, 5,000 Years of Faces, Jan. 28 - July 30, 1983. Seattle, Washington, Seattle Art Museum, First Person Singular, May 31, 2001 - Mar. 17, 2002. Seattle, Washington, Seattle Art Museum, American Art: The Stories We Carry, Oct. 20, 2022 - ongoing. Published ReferencesThe Art Quarterly vol. 21, no. 4 (Winter 1958): p. 432, reproduced. p. 435, fig. 1 (top).

Credit LineGift of Mrs. Peter M. Camfferman in memory of her sister Miss Helen Gove

DimensionsSight size: 24 1/4 x 20 1/4 in. (61.6 x 51.4 cm) Framed: 30 1/8 x 26 in. (76.5 x 66 cm)

MediumOil on canvas