Theodore Robinson

THEODORE ROBINSON (USA, 1852 - 1896).
"Crepuscule sur La Feuilleraie".
Oil on panel.
Signed (illegible) in the lower margin.
Period frame.
It presents faults.
Measurements: 34 x 45 cm; 36 x 66 x 5 cm (frame).

Rural landscape painted by the North American Theodore Robinson in an early stage of his artistic career, when he was living in France and frequented the impressionists. Although this twilight landscape, with its amber lights and autumnal trees flanking a mansion, does not properly belong to Impressionism. Resolved with a synthetic stroke, it explores instead a personal and introspective style.

Theodore Robinson was one of the first American impressionists. He began to develop this style in the late 1880s, visiting Giverny where he was best friends with Claude Monet. Many of his works are considered masterpieces of American Impressionism. At Giverny, Robinson painted what art historians consider to be his finest works. These paintings depict the surroundings of the village in different climates, in the Plenarist tradition. Robinson left France for the last time in 1892, although he intended to return. In the United States, he obtained a job at the Brooklyn Academy of Arts and also taught summer classes in Napanoch, New York near the Catskill Mountains, where he painted several landscapes. He also taught at Evelyn College, New Jersey and later at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts in Philadelphia. With New York as a base Robinson was able to relate to the American Impressionists. He maintained a close relationship with Johnny Henry Twatchman and Julian Alden Weir. He also spent part of his time in Connecticut. Here he painted a series of scenes with boats that are considered some of his best works. During the last year of his life, Robinson was asked to help complete a book of essays entitled "Modern French Masters" by editor and art historian Jon Charles Van Dyke. He wrote an article on the Barbizon painter Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot, and wrote and illustrated another essay on Monet, his great friend. In 1895, he enjoyed a very productive period in Vermont, and in February 1896 he wrote to Monet telling him that he intended to return to Giverny. However, in April of the same year he died of an acute asthma attack in New York.