Ada M. Sanberg (1885-1947) met William Preston Harrison in Chicago in 1910 and married him in 1915. Theirs was the story of a poor girl marrying a rich man, and possibly because of this circumstance the couple eventually moved to Los Angeles. They had one child, Carter Preston. Henri was supposed to paint the portrait in the summer of 1924, at the same time that WAYMAN ADAMS was originally scheduled to paint Mr. Harrison’s portrait, but Henri’s trip to Los Angeles was delayed until February of the following year. The artist was never very anxious to accept portrait commissions and viewed them mainly as a source of income. Because Harrison had been a strong supporter of his art, he probably felt he could not refuse the commission. Henri’s sentiment notwith-standing, the portrait is a good example of the artist’s late style. Instead of the thick, robust paint surface of his earlier paintings, this portrait has a thinner and flatter appearance. Henri’s portrayal of Ada Harrison is somewhat conservative, probably due to her social prominence and to the fact that the work was intended to hang in the museum next to Adams’s portrait of her husband. Mrs. Harrison was a large woman, and although Henri did not falsify this aspect of her appearance, he did give her an air of dignity. He minimized Mrs. Harrison’s bulk somewhat by showing her in a black dress partially covered by a furtrimmed, deep orange wrap. She holds a large, feathered fan. In his early paintings of dancers Henri often included such fans. The fan does not contradict the image of Mrs. Harrison’s respectability but does add an important color note to this basically dark painting. Harrison noted in 1935 that his wife had become the victim of endless criticism because of the portrait. He felt that much of it was due to other women’s jealousy over its being in a public museum and regretted not having had the sitter’s identity remain anonymous. Harrison was dismayed with this problem partly because he viewed the painting as a superb example of Henri’s art rather than primarily as a portrait of his wife.

The late nineteenth century witnessed a growing cosmopolitanism and sophistication in American culture. Great riches were amassed by railroad tycoons and land barons, and along with this came the desire for a luxurious standard of living. Collectors filled their homes with European as well as American works of art. American artists, generally trained abroad, often painted in styles that were indistinguishable from their European counterparts.
Most Americans who studied abroad did so in the European academies, which promoted uplifting subject matter and a representational style that emphasized well-modeled, clearly defined forms and realistic color. Academic painting served American artists well, for their clients demanded elaborate large-scale paintings to demonstrate their wealth and social positions. With an emphasis on material objects and textures, academic artists immortalized their patrons’ importance in full-length portraits.
Academic painting dominated taste in Europe throughout the century. But in the 1860s impressionism emerged in France as a reaction to this hegemony. By the 1880s this “new painting” was still considered progressive. Mary Cassatt was the only American invited to participate in the revolutionary Paris impressionist exhibitions. Despite her participation and the early interest of several other American painters, few Americans explored impressionism until the 1890s. Impressionist painters no longer had to choose subject matter of an elevated character but instead could depict everyday scenes and incidents. Nor did impressionists have to record the physical world with the objective detail of a photograph. Artists were now encouraged to leave their studios and paint outside under different weather conditions. American impressionists used the new aesthetic to capture the charm and beauty of the countryside and the city as well as the quiet delicacy of domestic interiors.

• About the Era.
• Fort, Ilene Susan and Michael Quick.  American Art:  a Catalogue of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art Collection.  Los Angeles:  Los Angeles County Museum of Art, 1991.
• Vure, Sarah. Circles of Influence: Impressionism to Modernism in Southern California Art, 1910-1930. Newport Beach, CA. 2000.
• Robert Henri's California: Realism, Race, and Region 1914-1925. Laguna Beach: Laguna Art Museum; Fullerton, California: Grand Central Press, California State University, Fullerton, 2014.