The artist’s record book indicates the title of this painting is Pepita, and it notes elsewhere that it was painted in Santa Fe. While summering in La Jolla, California, in 1914, Henri planned the art exhibition at San Diego’s Panama-California International Exposition (1915) and became close friends with Dr. Edgar L. Hewett, an ethnologist and director of the School of American Archaeology in Santa Fe, who was in charge of the ethnology and art exhibits. At Dr. Hewett’s invitation Henri spent the summers of 1916, 1917, and 1922 in Santa Fe, where Hewett introduced him to the Native Americans and their cultures. Henri’s ethnological interest in them fits into the larger pattern of his traveling in search of national or ethnic types, such as his Irish, Chinese, and black subjects. In his paintings of Native Americans he paid attention to costumes and daily habits while attempting to convey the spirit of the people, which he saw as noble and mysterious. For this purpose he preferred to paint children rather than adults, saying in The Art Spirit, "I have never respected any man more than I have some children. In the faces of children I have seen a look of wisdom and of kindness expressed with such ease and such certainty that I knew it was the expression of a whole race" (p. 242). The word Pepita simply means "little girl"; Henri’s record book indicates that the model’s name was Juanita. Several of Henri’s paintings of Native Americans include geometric blankets as backgrounds, perhaps reflecting his growing consciousness of abstract art and surface structure. Pepita’s multicolored background may refer to such textiles. Henri advised in The Art Spirit: "If there are objects in the background, they must not be painted because they are interesting in themselves. Their only right of existence is a complementary of harmonic benefits to the head of the figure" (p. 35). William Preston Harrison bought Pepita upon the suggestion of GEORGE BELLOWS, an artist the collector much admired.

The early twentieth century witnessed the transformation of the United States into a modern industrialized society and an international political power. By 1920 more than half of the country’s population lived in urban areas. Seeming to guarantee employment, the cities lured many farmers and African Americans from rural areas. In addition, between 1900 and 1920, 14.5 million immigrants from Europe, Russia, Mexico, and Asia settled here, primarily in urban centers. A new energy was channeled to such cities as New York and Chicago, as massive skyscrapers were erected to furnish much-needed office space and living quarters. Even West Coast cities were affected—the population of Los Angeles tripled between 1900 and 1910; its unplanned urban sprawl and dizzying speed were captured in the zany movies of the Keystone Cops, filmed on the streets of the city.

Art reflected these changing social and economic dynamics. Impressionism and Post-Impressionism were still popular. Yet other, more progressive ideas now challenged artists. A strong new commitment to realism emerged in literature and the fine arts.

In Philadelphia and New York, a group of artists centered around Robert Henri captured the vitality of urban American life. These realists depicted the hustle and bustle of city streets, the common pleasures of restaurants and various forms of entertainment. Critics dubbed these realists the “Ash Can School” because of their treatment of unidealized subject matter previously considered unattractive. These artists focused on the inhabitants of cities rather than the cities themselves. Their interest in people also led them to create a significant number of single-figure paintings, conveying the human side of the new America . During the 1910s and 1920s the realist celebration of America spread throughout the country, as artists recorded the neighborhoods and people that made their own cities distinct.