Lilla Cabot Perry

She stayed regularly in Giverny between 1889 and 1909 and made Impressionism known in America.

Dates1848 — 1933
NationalityAmerican
DisciplinePainter
Place of birthBoston, Massachusetts, United States

Biography

An American painter who came to formal training late, Lilla Cabot Perry studied in Paris and exhibited on both sides of the Atlantic. Also a poet, she played a recognised part in the reception of Impressionist painting in the United States.

Giverny

The Smithsonian’s National Portrait Gallery records that she spent nine summers in Giverny before returning permanently to Boston in 1909; the musée des impressionnismes Giverny specifies that the Perry family regularly rented a house close to Monet’s between 1889 and 1909. She became a friend of Monet and, through her lectures and exhibitions, one of the principal introducers of Impressionism in the United States.

Relation with the Hôtel Baudy

She never comes down alone. “Perry et sa famille”, 20 June to 29 October 1889. “Les 3 Dlles Perry”, 13 to 19 June 1891 — her three daughters. “L. C. Perry et sa famille”, 14 July to 20 October 1891. And on 8 June 1894, “T. S. Perry et famille”, her husband entered as “homme de lettres”, until 18 October.

Principal works

**Self-Portrait** oil on canvas, c. 1889–1896, 81 × 65.1 cm. Terra Foundation for American Art, Daniel J. Terra Collection, inv. 1999.107.

**Autumn Afternoon, Giverny** oil on canvas, c. 1905–1909, 65.4 × 81 cm. Terra Foundation for American Art, Daniel J. Terra Collection, inv. 1999.106.

**The Green Hat** oil on canvas, 1913, 85.7 × 66.7 cm, signed and dated. Portrait of Edith, the artist’s second daughter. Terra Foundation for American Art, inv. 1987.25.

Key points

1848Born — Boston, Massachusetts, United States
GivernyNine summers between 1889 and 1909
1933Died

Sources

01National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution
02Musée des impressionnismes Giverny
03Terra Foundation for American Art
04Hôtel 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 132 days from June 20, 1889 to October 29, 1889 · 3 shared stays
John Leslie Breck 99 days from July 14, 1891 to October 20, 1891
Thomas Buford Meteyard 46 days from September 5, 1891 to October 20, 1891 · 2 shared stays
Josephine Miles Lewis 25 days from June 8, 1894 to July 2, 1894
Václav Radimský 15 days from October 4, 1894 to October 18, 1894
Guy Rose 7 days from June 13, 1891 to June 19, 1891
William Howard Hart 6 days from September 21, 1889 to September 26, 1889

Read the register entries

In the collection

Related artists

Discover Claude Monet 1840 — 1926 French · Painter His arrival in Giverny is the most frequently cited starting point of the village’s reputation.

Discover Mary Colman Wheeler 1846 — 1920 American · Painter She rented the Hameau and brought her pupils there: the late Giverny colony was also a girls’ art school.

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