John Leslie Breck

One of the first Americans to adopt Impressionism and win it acceptance in the United States.

Dates1860 — 1899
NationalityAmerican
DisciplinePainter
Place of birthBorn at sea, off Hong Kong

Biography

Trained in the United States, Germany and then Paris, John Leslie Breck first came to Giverny in 1887. He became close to Claude Monet and his family and made his transition to Impressionism. Back briefly in the United States in 1890–1891, he was among the first to exhibit Impressionist works there and to apply the style to the American landscape. He died in 1899, aged thirty-eight.

Giverny

The Figge Art Museum dates his first visit to Giverny to 1887, with a small group of colleagues; the Terra Foundation speaks of a residency from 1887 to 1891, and the Figge of a second trip in 1891. The musée des impressionnismes Giverny counts him among the artists who became friends with Monet. His career was short: he died in 1899, aged thirty-eight, and John Henry Twachtman then described him as an artist who had “founded a new school of painting in America”.

Relation with the Hôtel Baudy

His first stay is the longest in the whole register: from 4 April 1888 to 30 April 1889, thirteen months without a break. He is twenty-eight, and the register gives his birthplace as “Hong Kong, China” — where the biographies write “born at sea, near Guam”. He returns from 9 July to 21 November 1891, entered this time as “Boston”.

Principal works

**M. Baudy Behind his Desk at the Hotel Baudy** oil on canvas, 1888, 34.9 × 44.5 cm. Lucien Baudy at his counter, on the low platform from which he watched the room; behind him the shelves of glasses and bottles, and a cat asleep on the floor. Inscribed and dated lower right: “à Madame Baudy — John L. Breck · Feb 88”. Smithsonian American Art Museum, gift of Donald J. and Helen D. Douglass, The Douglass Foundation, acc. 2018.18.3.

**Garden at Giverny (In Monet’s Garden)** oil on canvas, c. 1887–1891, 46 × 55.6 cm. Terra Foundation for American Art, Daniel J. Terra Collection, inv. 1988.22.

**Evening in Giverny** oil on canvas, c. 1891. The Hôtel Baudy and the steeple of Sainte-Radegonde can be made out. Museum of Fine Arts, St. Petersburg, Florida.

Key points

1860Born — Born at sea, off Hong Kong
Giverny1887 — 1891, repeated stays
1899Died

Sources

01Figge Art Museum
02Terra Foundation for American Art
03Museum of Fine Arts, St. Petersburg
04Musée des impressionnismes Giverny
05Museum of Fine Arts, St. Petersburg, notice d’œuvre « Evening in Giverny »
06Smithsonian American Art Museum, notice « M. Baudy Behind his Desk at the Hotel Baudy »
07Hôtel Baudy guest register, “Registre pour inscrire les voyageurs”, Philadelphia Museum of Art; transcribed by Carol Lowrey in William H. Gerdts, Monet’s Giverny, Abbeville Press, 1993, pp. 222-227.

From the register

Under the same roof

The painters whose stay overlaps this one. The register establishes that they lodged in the house on the same days, and nothing more.

Theodore Robinson 135 days from July 9, 1891 to November 20, 1891
Dawson Dawson-Watson 127 days from May 12, 1888 to September 15, 1888
Philip Leslie Hale 123 days from June 1, 1888 to October 1, 1888 · 2 shared stays
Theodore Earl Butler 115 days from May 20, 1888 to September 11, 1888
Theodore Wendel 111 days from May 20, 1888 to September 7, 1888
Lilla Cabot Perry 99 days from July 14, 1891 to October 20, 1891
Thomas Buford Meteyard 78 days from September 5, 1891 to November 21, 1891 · 2 shared stays