"Tom Po Qui (Water of Antelope Lake/Indian Girl/Ramoncita)," Robert Henri, 1914.
Born in Cincinnati and raised in Nebraska, Robert Henri (1865-1929) is one of the great American artists. Starting off as a fan of the Impressionists (which you can see in the background of today's painting), he rejected the standards of American academic art and instead was a leader of the Ashcan school, a realist movement that specialized mostly in scenes in the everyday lives of the urban poor. As WWI loomed on the horizon, he traveled in California and New Mexico, where he painted some local subjects.
Not much is known of Tom Po Qui, aka Ramoncita Gonzalez, except that she was of the Tiwa people, a linguistic subgroup of the Pueblo. She was an artist, producing painted pottery, and performer, perhaps performing as a "show Indian" for tourists at the 1914 Panama Exposition, where this was painted. But in this portrait she looks out at us in a very self-possessed manner, confronting us as equals. Her outfit has an air of authenticity about it; she doesn't seem dressed up as a stereotype, but is simply reflecting her heritage and letting us see who she is. She is not being exploited; one thinks she won't allow it.
From the Denver Art Museum.
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