Village Girl by Robert Henri

Robert Henri was a great 20th-century American painter. However, his most enduring legacy is found in his ideas about art. He taught his students technique, but also gave them a vision for what art is really all about. Kicking against the establishment, he taught ideas like, “I am interested in art as a means of living a life; not as a means of making a living,” and "Forget about art, and paint pictures of what interests you in life."

Village Girl is from the later period of Henri’s career. It shouts out his affection for bright tones and intense colors. It also exemplifies his enjoyment painting the simple joy and beauty of everyday children. When Henri and his wife would visit an area, they would invite local folks into their cottage for conversation, a meal, and the opportunity to have their portrait made.

Henri incarnated himself among the people with whom he surrounded himself. Avoiding the pretentiousness and snobbery that so easily comes with fame and greatness he enjoyed finding a point of connection with the humanity of any place he visited. He said, “My love of mankind is individual.…It flames up swiftly for Mexico if I am painting the peon there; it warms towards the bull fighter of Spain if in spite of its cruelty there is that element in his art which I find beautiful; it intensifies before the Irish peasant whose love, poetry, simplicity, and humor have enriched my existence just as completely as though these people were of my own country and my own hearthstone. Everywhere I see at times this beautiful expression of the dignity of life to which I respond with a wish to preserve this beauty of humanity for my friends to enjoy."

Imagine the morning in which Village Girl was painted. Did Mrs. Henri step outside and pick just the right flowers to complement the blushing cheeks and coat that the little girl brought? Henri could have been painting the rich and famous, but instead chose to paint hundreds of common everyday jewels. Living among them, he learned from them and loved them.

But why children? In children, Henri saw a beauty of innocence and joy that needed no adornment. He said, "If one has a love of children as human beings and realizes the greatness that is in them, no better subjects for painting can be found." Sometimes philosophers have gone too far in speaking of the innocence of children, as if they are free from original sin. That is untrue. However, children do have an innocence that comes from fewer years of acquaintance with sin.

At the end of time, God’s kingdom will be empty of fear, anxiety, alienation, or sorrow. There will be no cynicism or disbelief. Instead, innocence and joy will fill our hearts. I don’t know what our stature and size will look like in heaven, but I know that our souls will have a childlike quality. Jesus said, “Let the children come to Me, and do not hinder them, for to such belongs the kingdom of God” (Luke 18:16). Also, “But to all who did receive Him, who believed in His name, He gave the right to become children of God” (John 1:12).

Robert Henri said, "Feel the dignity of a child. Do not feel superior to him, for you are not." Are adults more developed than children? Yes. Are they stronger and swifter? Sure. Are they more in the image of God than children? No. In fact, a young child who loves Jesus in simple faith as Savior is more fully alive than a grown man with a Ph.D. and a Nobel Peace prize on the wall.

This girl is not a princess, nor the daughter of wealth. She is a “Village Girl” and lilies rest in her delicate hands. Simple flowers complement her ordinary clothes and plain background. Her dignity is found in her being a “daughter of Eve.” We would do well to emulate Henri and find beauty all around us in the people we encounter, and cease with the idolatry of celebrity beauty. This brings me to a final point of consideration.

Joe Simpson disgusts me. You know Joe don’t you? He is the former Baptist minister who one day awoke to the sex appeal of his daughter Jessica. Combining her beauty with a decent ability to carry a tune, Joe decided to cash in by pimping her as a movie and music starlet. As her “music manager,” Joe preached the gospel of Jessica. In a GQ Magazine interview, he remarked about how sexually attractive his daughter was.

Makes your skin crawl, doesn’t it? Even the secular press took note of the strange words of a man who threw his own flesh-and-blood daughter to the wolves of American erotica. This is ugliness. ^“Like a gold ring in a pig's snout is a beautiful woman without discretion” (Proverbs 11:22).

Was there ever a time in the life of Jessica Simpson when she resembled the Village Girl, free from the stares of eyes polluted by lust? Why does our culture equate beauty with sex? In a post-Lolita day, have we completely lost the ability to appreciate beauty without acting like beasts? Is the church in America walking against the spirit of the age in these matters?

One day God will set all things in order. “On that day the Lord their God will save them, as the flock of His people; for like the jewels of a crown they shall shine on His land. For how great is His goodness, and how great His beauty!”

Robert Henri gives us a demonstration of beauty clothed with innocence, joy, trust, and dignity. May we demonstrate such beauty in our own lives.

W. Scott Lamb is a pastor with Providence Baptist Church in South St. Louis County, MO. He and his wife Pearl enjoy the challenges and pleasures of raising their four sons. Feel free to contact Scott at www.pbcstlouis.com.