Theodore Earl Butler

A lodger at the Hôtel Baudy in 1888, he became Monet’s son-in-law and the only member of the colony to die in Giverny.

Dates1861 — 1936
NationalityAmerican
DisciplinePainter
Place of birthColumbus, Ohio, United States

Biography

Born in Columbus, Ohio, on 16 October 1861, Theodore Earl Butler graduated from Marietta College in 1882, studied at the Art Students League in New York, then moved to Paris, where he worked at the Grande Chaumière, the Académie Colarossi and the Académie Julian. He died in Giverny on 2 May 1936. The Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Terra Foundation for American Art both give 1860 as his year of birth; 1861 is the date retained by the artist’s catalogue and by standard biographical notices. The divergence is not settled here. His year of birth is uncertain: Carol Lowrey writes 1861, the Metropolitan Museum of Art writes 1860. Both agree on 1936, and on Giverny as the place of death.

Giverny

He arrived in Giverny in 1888 with his friend Theodore Robinson, who had come to introduce the village to his compatriots. He returned in the autumn of 1891 and never really left. In 1892 he married Suzanne Hoschedé, Monet’s stepdaughter and favourite model — the wedding Robinson painted in The Wedding March and recorded in his diary. Suzanne died in 1899; in 1900 Butler married her sister Marthe, who had been raising the children. His house became one of the hearths of the American colony, and he is among those who gave it its continuity.

Relation with the Hôtel Baudy

A single entry under his name, the eleventh in the register: “The E Butler, 26 ans, Etats Unis, Columbus, Ohio, 20 mai–11 septembre 1888”. The same day as Theodore Wendel. After that summer he will have no further need of the hotel: he marries Suzanne Hoschedé in 1892 and settles in the village, where he will die.

Principal works

**Un Jardin, Maison Baptiste** oil on canvas, 1895, 53.7 × 65.4 cm. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, gift of Margaret and Raymond J. Horowitz, inv. 1976.340.1. Museum record

**The Card Players** oil on canvas, 1896, 65.4 × 81.6 cm. Signed lower right “T.E. Butler ’96”. Terra Foundation for American Art, Daniel J. Terra Collection, inv. 1992.21.

**Le Déjeuner** oil on canvas, 1897, 54 × 65.1 cm. Signed lower right “T.E. Butler ’97”. Terra Foundation for American Art, Daniel J. Terra Collection, inv. 1987.3.

**Lili Butler Reading at the Butler House, Giverny** oil on canvas, 1908, 73.3 × 59.7 cm. Signed lower right “T.E. Butler ’08”. His daughter Lili reading in the Giverny house. Terra Foundation for American Art, Daniel J. Terra Collection, inv. 1993.8.

Suzanne Hoschedé au lapin pastel, 1891, private collection. Suzanne Hoschedé holds a young rabbit against her; the sheet bears a dedication, “Mon amie Mme Baudy”. Butler married Suzanne the following year.