Theodore Robinson

The closest to Monet: a true friendship, and one of the deepest assimilations of French Impressionism.

Dates1852 — 1896
NationalityAmerican
DisciplinePainter
Place of birthIrasburg, Vermont, United States

Biography

An American painter trained in Chicago, New York and Paris, Theodore Robinson is among the most frequently cited figures of American Impressionism. His repeated stays in France during the 1880s and 1890s brought him to Giverny, where he painted outdoors and kept a diary now regarded as a first-hand source on village life.

Giverny

The Baltimore Museum of Art counts six extended sojourns in Giverny, from spring 1887 to the end of 1892. Robinson was the closest to Monet: their friendship is documented, and it was he who acted as intermediary at Theodore Butler’s marriage to Suzanne Hoschedé, the painter’s stepdaughter. His stylistic development shows one of the deepest assimilations of French Impressionism.

Relation with the Hôtel Baudy

The register carries four stays under his name, and they are the longest in the whole volume. From 18 September 1887 to 4 January 1888, aged thirty-five, from Irasburg. From 12 May to 12 December 1889. From 19 May to 3 November 1890. From 6 April to 20 November 1891, this time entered as “New York (Irasburg)”. Four whole seasons in the house, over five years.

Principal works

**Portrait of Madame Baudy** oil on canvas. Angélina Baudy seated at a zinc table, straw hat and buttoned boots, a glass before her. Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, Richmond.

**The Wedding March** oil on canvas, 1892, 56.7 × 67.3 cm. Terra Foundation for American Art, Daniel J. Terra Collection, inv. 1999.127.

**The Valley of the Seine, from the Hills of Giverny** oil on canvas, 1892, 65.9 × 81.6 cm. National Gallery of Art, Washington, Corcoran Collection, inv. 2014.79.30.

**Old Church at Giverny** oil on canvas, 1891, 45.8 × 56.1 cm. The church of Sainte-Radegonde. Smithsonian American Art Museum, gift of William T. Evans, inv. 1909.9.6.

**The bar of the Hôtel Baudy, Giverny** oil on canvas, circa 1888, 42 × 48.5 cm. Signed lower right “Th Robinson”. Private collection. The dark wooden counter, the bottles on the shelf, a door open onto the light: the interior of the house itself, painted by its most faithful lodger. Provenance: Baudy-Suze collection, then to the present owner through successive transfers.

Key points

1852Born — Irasburg, Vermont, United States
Giverny1887 — 1892, repeated stays
1896Died

Sources

01Baltimore Museum of Art
02Denver Art Museum
03Smithsonian American Art Museum
04National Gallery of Art
05Terra Foundation for American Art
06Giverny News, « Madame Baudy par Robinson »
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.
08Artcurial, “Impressionniste & Moderne”, sale 4140, lot 305 — Theodore Robinson, “Le bar de l’hôtel Baudy, Giverny”

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.

Dawson Dawson-Watson 164 days from May 24, 1890 to November 3, 1890
John Leslie Breck 135 days from July 9, 1891 to November 20, 1891
Lilla Cabot Perry 132 days from June 20, 1889 to October 29, 1889 · 3 shared stays
Guy Rose 123 days from July 4, 1890 to November 3, 1890 · 2 shared stays
Thomas Buford Meteyard 77 days from September 5, 1891 to November 20, 1891 · 2 shared stays
Ernest Clifford Peixotto 54 days from August 28, 1890 to October 20, 1890 · 2 shared stays
William Howard Hart 6 days from September 21, 1889 to September 26, 1889