In the painting by the American modernist painter, Robert Henri, "The Art Student (Miss Josephine Nivison)" in the year 1906, we see for the first time, American artwork turning towards the avant garde. While European artists such as Monet, and other expressionist painters had been moving in the direction already, the works of Robert Henri and others from his 'Ashcan School' were the arguably the first American works to really push the boundaries of painting and stray from the norm of acute realism that was in place at the time. Henri, who's lifetime from 1865 to 1929, served as a completely new door for American art, was also viewed as one of the greatest art teachers in history, and used to tell his students to not only paint the material in front of them, but also, and perhaps more importantly, to strive to paint the spirit of the subject as well.

Henri himself also used to say that color is only beautiful when it means something. The color scheme in This piece is triadic and realistic; the most dominant colors in the piece are the dark blue of the smock and the red of the girls dress. He also uses analogous colors and colors of similar shades in the background, keeping it shadowed and dull on purpose, not letting anything distract from the main purpose of the peice, which is to fully realize the subject, to depict no only the image but the spirit of his subject, one of his art students, pictured as if caught off guard or maybe resting for a moment during her work, eager to get back to her painting. Her hair is disheveled, her stance slouched.

The shapes and forms in this painting are naturalistic , curvilinear, and soft edged. His brush strokes are intense and fast, similar to the impressionist style. The use of the forms and colors are balanced and centered. There's nothing too obviously abstract, other than his use of brush stroke, and the subject is in the middle of the composition not penetrating any of the boarders or edges of the canvas.

The line work in the piece give you a strong vertical sense that is completely necessary for the feeling he was trying to achieve. Had he used a more horizontal canvas the feeling would be completely changed. The canvas size as it is, and the vertical line work throughout the piece make it seem as though Josephine is standing right before you. For the most part the lines are accurately descriptive of the shape of the young woman's form and figure. Again, the most daring and new innovation in the piece is the use of brush stroke and paint that is similar to impressionism. The texture of the piece is mostly visual, but the paint and the way the brush was handled sporadically give it a little tactile texture as well. It's shiny and not too over the top. Experiments in thick texture would come some years later, for his time, Henri was already taking baby steps towards making much larger breakthroughs in abstraction and the avant garde in American art.

The light value is mostly dark and shadowed except for the strong directional light on the subjects face and upper body, the most expressive and important areas of the work. This use of light puts our focus on the face and posture of the young woman immediately, then the next thing our eyes fall to are the brushes in her hand at her side. In this piece the use of light value is a guide for your eyes through the artwork, illuminating what mattered most to the artist and casting the rest in shadow.

Spatially the artwork is organized very clearly. The artist definitely has a traditional but immaculate sense of composition and symmetrical balance. There is unity in the use of blues and browns that surround the subject and in the collar and the bottom hem of the girls clothing which is white and stands out to us. The red serves as variety. The only place we see any sort of color that stands out or grabs our attention more than the white collar and the hem. The proportions are realistic and life-like. There really isn't much repetition, his rhythm lies in the way he handles his brush strokes, sporadically moving back and forth and intensely working to capture not only the likeness of the figure but the aura of the person before him.

Robert Henri is remembered as a great artist because of his ability to capture the spirit of his subjects in a way that was completely new and unique in his time. He felt strongly about life and about people, their spirit and translating that to paint on canvas, and helping his students to achieve this too, was what brought him the most joy in life. His life and his work serve as an excellent model for artists of any age, place, race, or time period. His goal was to go beyond mere representation in art, and to reach down a little deeper. In Robert Henri's own words,"Because we are saturated with life, because we are human, our strongest motive is life, humanity; and the stronger the motive backing of the line, the stronger, and therefore more beautiful, the line will be."