University Place

The Art and Life of Theodore Robinson

[gentle music]

Arthur McEvoy: Hello, and welcome to Creekside Place Community Center in Evansville, Wisconsin. My name’s Arthur McEvoy. I am a member of the board of directors of the Evansville Grove Society, Incorporated. We are Evansville’s local historical society. We maintain a museum at the historic Baker Building in Leonard Leota Park here in Evansville. And we sponsor occasional events like this one. This afternoon, we’re welcoming Dr. Janine Yorimoto Boldt from the Chazen Museum of Art at UW-Madison. She’s here to tell us about the life and work of the Impressionist artist Theodore Robinson. Dr. Boldt joins us through the courtesy of Badger Talks, which is the speakers’ bureau for the UW-Madison campus. For more information on this great free resource for this state, please visit badgertalks.wisc.edu. They have experts which will who will give talks on practically any subject you can think of. And as you can see, they will come to you.

I have a few housekeeping items. Wisconsin Public Television is here. You’ve been warned. [audience laughs] You’ll note that we have a little collection of Robinson reproductions today. They are on loan to us from Heidi Carvin, who has our thanks. Thanks also to Creekside Place, especially Sean Lynn, for hosting us and helping us put the program together. This one right here is a genuine Robinson. It belongs to Creekside. They’ve named him Bert for reasons that are lost to history. [audience laughs]

Dr. Boldt’s talk will run 45 minutes. We’ll have time for discussion afterwards. So if you have questions or comments, please save them because we’re recording. There’s a hat. The Grove Society’s famous donation hat at the table in the back. Neither Badger Talks nor the Grove Society is in this for the money. We do occur incur expenses, however. So, if you’d care to put a ducat in the bucket on your way out, we’ll thank you, and split the proceeds with between the two organizations. Please also sign our guest book, which will be at the table.

Our presenter today is Dr. Janine Yorimoto Boldt, who holds a PhD in American Studies from William and Mary. The title of her dissertation wasThe Politics of Portraiture in Colonial Virginia. She’s an accomplished scholar of early American art and culture. She’s been on staff at the Chazen Museum since 2021, when she came to Wisconsin as associate curator of American art. She previously held a Mellon Foundation Postdoctoral Fellowship from the American Philosophical Society. She’s currently involved in planning the comprehensive reinstallation of the Chazen Museum’s permanent collection. And in January, she’ll become the curator of American art for the Palmer Museum of Art at Penn State University, for which we congratulate her. She’ll speak to us today on “From Evansville to Giverny and Back Again: The Life and Art of Theodore Robinson.” Please join me in welcoming Dr. Boldt.

[audience applauds]

Janine Yorimoto Boldt: All right, all right. Good afternoon, everyone. Thank you so much for joining me here today. I’m excited to be here to talk about local artist Theodore Robinson, considered one of America’s foremost Impressionist painters. And I just wanna begin by first thanking Arthur McEvoy and the Evansville Grove Society for inviting me here today to give this presentation. And I want to acknowledge the work of local historian Ruth Ann Montgomery, who has uncovered local archival materials related to Theodore Robinson, his family, and their lives here in Evansville, and has written a lovely biography of the artist. So, these materials were invaluable as I worked on this presentation. And this talk will also draw on the scholarship of other art historians, especially Sona Johnston, who has written extensively about the art of Theodore Robinson. So, today, I hope to bring together much of the scholarship to discuss Theodore Robinson’s life, his art, and his place in American art history, with, of course, special attention to his time here in Wisconsin.

All right, Theodore Robinson was born on June 3, 1852, in Irasburg, Vermont, the third of six children of Reverend Elijah Robinson and Ellen Robinson. In 1856, the family relocated to Evansville, Wisconsin. The family built and lived in the house at 340 West Main, which is still there today. And here’s a recent photo of it. I want to thank Arthur for sharing this with me. Elijah Robinson was a Methodist minister who opened a clothing store here, although he continued to perform ministerial functions in town.

In 1860, Robinson began attending Evansville Seminary, a Methodist school, where he was awarded several prizes in penmanship, and even at a young age, he was noted for his sketches of family and friends here in town. And this map gives a sense of Evansville as Robinson experienced it. In the upper left corner, I’ve circled the Robinsons’ house. And the large red circle just below it is the Evansville Seminary. Several blocks down Main Street, the smallest circle, was the Methodist church, so this area formed much of young Robinson’s world here. And here’s a later, clearer bird’s eye view of the town, dated to 1871.

Throughout his life, Robinson struggled with severe asthma, and drawing was an activity that Robinson pursued while recovering from asthma attacks in his youth here. According to one local resident, many hymnals featured portraits drawn by Robinson of members of his father’s congregation, and one can imagine a young Robinson, bored during church services or events, just sketching away in these small books. Despite his physical limitations, however, one of his first jobs was in construction, putting up lath in local houses here. And he also worked as a compositor or typesetter for the local newspaper, theEvansville Review, which would continue publishing updates on his life long after he had left town.

Encouraged by his mother, Robinson left to study at the Chicago Academy of Design in 1869. The local newspaper here reported that he had chosen to be an artist and had departed for the city, stating, “All who have seen Theodore’s pencil sketches the past year or two are convinced that he has selected a congenial profession. There is not a young man of better habits, purer morals, or one whom Evansville would delight to honor in any calling more than Theodore Robinson.”

Following Chicago’s Great Fire of 1871, however, he returned to Evansville briefly, where he was hired by the locals to draw crayon portraits from photographs. Among his commissions were portraits of bank officers that hung here in the local bank. In the summer of 1872, he left for Colorado in search of a better climate to improve his health. And remember, he had severe asthma, which I’m sure did not fare well following the Chicago fire. In a testament to his local popularity, the Evansville newspaper declared that some 50 or more neighbors gathered on the lawn of his parents’ home to wish him well. And theEvansville Reviewreported that “We all part regrettingly with Theodore, or our young artist, as we have been pleased to call him.”

He returned to Evansville in March 1873, and for the next year and a half or so traveled between Chicago, Evansville, Madison, and Janesville, selling his crayon portraits. And a local newspaper ad advertised that he would execute these crayon portraits from photographs for only $10, for a 10 by 20, or 20 by 24-inch portrait. He would do two for $18 or three for $25. And then the smaller portraits would cost less. And I have not seen any of Robinson’s crayon portraits, but I imagine there’s got to be some circulating around town or in local historical societies somewhere. So if you know of any, please let me know.

In December of 1873, he apparently offered instruction in crayon drawing in Janesville. He continued to offer this service when he visited Wisconsin during his later years through at least 1880. And this practice was not uncommon for aspiring artists during the period as it provided an income. And examples of crayon portraits exist all over the country, many by unknown artists, and maybe one of these will turn out to be by Robinson.

Robinson enrolled at the National Academy of Design in New York in 1874, where he studied with Lemuel Everett Wilmarth And so, on screen here is an example of Wilmarth’s work. Not particularly well known today, Wilmarth was a successful and popular teacher in the late 19th century and had trained in France. However, Robinson did not stay in New York for very long. Like so many other American artists, Robinson pursued art instruction in Europe, particularly from the great academically-trained painters. Paris was considered the center of the European art world, and Robinson traveled there in 1876, where he studied at the atelier of Charles mile Auguste Carolus-Duran. And Carolus-Duran was one of the most sought-after portrait painters working at the time in Paris, and from him, Robinson likely learned to appreciate the artist’s sort of painterly technique, that is, the soft lines from the loose brushstrokes and the application of color that we can see in the portrait from the year Robinson was in Paris.

Later that year, Robinson entered the cole des Beaux-Arts. The cole des Beaux-Arts wasthemost distinguished art academy at the time, and at the school, students rigorously studied draftsmanship or drawing. A typical student, including Robinson, could expect to work from October to July, six mornings a week at drawing and then painting from life models. Afternoons were usually spent studying and sketching at the Louvre or other galleries, and many also studied art history, history, and the classics to prepare them for painting history paintings, which were considered the highest art form in the Academy.

And what we see on the screen right now are examples of the kinds of studies that Robinson and his fellow students were engaging in and were completing during their studies. So, the sketch on the left is by Robinson of a male nude figure that is owned by Creekside here. And if you haven’t seen it yet, I encourage you to look at it after the presentation. It’s dated to 1875, so we know it was drawn before Robinson left New York to study in Paris. However, from this early sketch, you can see Robinson’s ability to draw the human figure and his attention to musculature as well as his engagement and participation in figural drawing, which is a foundation of academic training.

The oil painting study on the right on the screen is by an American artist named Julian Alden Weir, who became a very close friend of Robinson while they were studying in Paris together. Both Robinson and Weir studied at the atelier of Jean-Lon Grme at the school, meaning he was their primary instructor. And here’s an example of Grme’s work, a painting from the same year that Robinson was working with him. From Grme, Robinson learned the importance of draftsmanship in painting, and we can see the tighter lines and delineations of form and color in Grme’s work than we saw in Carolus-Duran’s painting. And from these teachers and institutions, Robinson received academic training, which relied on the strong foundation of draftsmanship, studio models, and adherence to representing nature, which resulted in very naturalistic or realistic paintings. And they were supported by mainstream institutions, academies, and wealthy patrons throughout Europe as well as in New York.

Robinson also befriended other American artists during his studies abroad, including Will Hicok Low and Kenyon Cox, who sketched this portrait of Robinson in Venice. These artists traveled together during breaks from study, visiting Italy and the French countryside, which Robinson particularly enjoyed. Robinson wrote to his friends and family back here in Evansville that he enjoyed the country village of Grez, France. “Life here is very pleasant after Paris. Were it not for the marvelous facilities for study in every branch of knowledge, the incomparable collections and museums, and the opportunities for instruction, Paris is a place as a place of residence has few attractions, except for one who would live in a whirl of dissipation or excitement.” Of course, he admitted that many fellow Americans did, in fact, enjoy these attractions.

In Ruth Ann Montgomery’s biography of Robinson, she noted that Robinson’s father, a minister, remember, was very concerned with morals and protecting Evansville’s youth from bad influences. In fact, as a local village trustee, his first proposed ordinance was a ban on pool halls here in Evansville. And he actually told the village board, “The billiard room of this village is detrimental to the morals of the youth of this village and should be closed.” So, I imagine that Robinson’s report back to Evansville appeased his father and allayed some of these concerns over potential bad influences in Paris.

Nevertheless, this undated photograph that Robinson took of men playing billiards in France is in a collection, and I can’t help but wonder how often Robinson did actually engage in these so-called whirls of dissipation that he was finding in Europe. With his fellow American artists, including Kenyon Cox, who’s represented here, Robinson traveled around France again, taking in sights, making sketches, and studying the so-called masters of European art. The Evansville newspaper published some of his correspondence, including notes about some of this artwork he was viewing, and in Turin, he called this portrait by Van Dyck “the most charming Van Dyck that I have ever seen.” And this correspondence connected his friends and relatives here in Evansville to these really great collections in Europe.

The time traveling as a group of artists in the late 1870s reinforce Robinson’s existing interest in painting outdoors and representing rural subjects, which they all did together as a group, and as we saw in that earlier photograph. This portrait sketch from the Chazen collection featuring Douglas Volk was completed by Robinson in Paris around this time. Volk was a fellow American artist who studied with Grme as well, and Volk later founded the Minneapolis School of Fine Art. Also, perhaps just of local interest, this particular sketch was donated to the Chazen by another local Wisconsin artist, John Wilde, who lived and worked, I believe, here in Evansville, right, while he taught at UW-Madison. So, I just thought I would share that fun fact for everyone here today.

Theodore Robinson exhibited at the Paris Salon for the first time in 1877. The Paris Salon was a juried exhibition and was very competitive, so acceptance into it was a major accomplishment for the young artist. Robinson joyfully wrote to his mother, “My picture is accepted and I tremble with joy.” This triumphant painting is titledMimiand is inscribed 1877, Paris. It is a relatively small, humble painting, but one that marks a major milestone and achievement for Robinson. And it also reveals Robinson’s early mature style, which was academic in nature and realistic in its representation, and we can compare it to these contemporary images by his two French teachers to see some of the influence that they had on his artwork at the time.

A Chicago newspaper reported that Robinson was one of the most promising American artists then working in Paris, though they criticized this work. The correspondent wrote that, “He is too truthful, and let me say it as a friend, he does not flatter people enough. His pictures are exact resemblances. His greatest hindrance to success is his faithfulness to nature. A little more flattery of the subject would largely increase his popularity.” TheEvansville Reviewdefended him, however, stating that, “It seems to us that this faithfulness to nature is the very failing which should be cultivated.”

Robinson returned to America in late 1879. Struggling financially, he spent prolonged periods of time with his family here in Evansville. While here, he painted his brother’s farm in the local area, and to supplement his income, he produced illustrations forHarper’s Publications, including the two reproduced here on the screen. Many of the stories that Robinson produced were illustrations for moralizing children’s stories, and he placed these characters in rural settings, and perhaps Robinson was inspired by the local Wisconsin farms and people as he was producing these images. On the right is another illustration for a children’s story that Robinson produced. It’s unclear which came first here, the painting or the illustration. Regardless, the relationship between the two is very clear, and together they highlight how working in the graphic arts with paid commissions allowed Robinson to continue producing oil paintings as a struggling artist, and may have inspired some of his works.

In 1881, Will Hicok Low secured him a teaching position in New York at a day school for ladies. Low wrote that he needed “to extricate Robinson from his surroundings,” Evansville, “where he was fast relapsing into a vegetable state.” [audience laughs] Clearly, Low meant that Robinson was not feeling particularly inspired here in Wisconsin. But when I read this quote, I couldn’t help but think of this painting by Low that we have in the Chazen collection as illustrating the sort of vegetable state of mind, so to speak. [all laugh]

Robinson continued to paint in New York and then on trips throughout New England, working for a time on mural projects with artist John La Farge. This mural is by La Farge from New York City’s Church of the Ascension. Now, it actually dates to 1888, so it’s past when Robinson was working with him, so Robinson did not actually work on this particular mural. However, I wanted to provide a sense of the type of mural that Robinson was likely assisting with and its very scale. So, here’s just a closer view of the mural. Rendering such large figures continued and improved Robinson’s studies of the human form. Right, so that draftsmanship was really coming into hand, coming in handy here. And that was a highlight of his studies abroad. So throughout this career, critics would continue to note the strength of Robinson’s figures, even after he turned to the less realistic style that we consider Impressionism.

Robinson was also finding inspiration in the work of Winslow Homer. He wrote to his friend Kenyon Cox, “Since I began to draw years ago, my ideal was Winslow Homer that is, country life and work mostly out-of-doors.” So, perhaps Robinson was drawn to works like this one by Homer, with the sort of broad application of paint and the heroic rendering of the woman in this very dramatic outdoor setting. And when it was exhibited in New York, this watercolor was widely praised. Robinson’s apparent interest in country life, I would suggest, was a result of growing up in rural Wisconsin.

And this 1882 painting of a woman in a daisy field in Nantucket, Rhode Island, on the left, shows a strong relationship with Homer’s paintings of women at the time as well, such as the one seen on the right. Both feature women standing in a landscape, appearing almost as decorative paper dolls. The popularity of images like these reflects the nation’s interest in quiet, rural scenes. They contrast with the increasingly industrialized modern life that caused a lot of anxiety at the time. And I will also just quickly note that this painting of the daisy field descended for many years in Robinson’s family here in Evansville.

It was also around this time that Robinson paintedMan in a Workshop, an artwork in the Chazen collection. Here, we see a man in profile engaged in the act of working. The relatively small scene is mundane in its subject, representing an artisan in his humble workshop. The tools and wood elements create very interesting lines, however, offering a study in color and light as the majority of the painting is in muted browns and grays. For instance, the diagonal beam that goes behind the man’s legs adds some visual interest, drawing your eye around the painting, while the thinner wood sticks, tools, and materials on the left side of the composition echo the diagonal line, but vary in their angles. The man’s blue jacket offers a little bit of color, while the light and greenery from the window provide relief from what would otherwise be a fairly monochromatic painting. The sun casts light on the man’s head, providing a light source for the artisan, but also drawing attention to the individual’s head, the source of his creativity and skill.

While not yet working in the Impressionist style for which Theodore Robinson became known, we already see an interest in representing the everyday subjects as well as light and color within these painting, which are hallmarks of Impressionism. And I can’t help but think that Robinson may have been considering his earlier experience here in town, putting up lath in houses in Evansville, when he was painting this. And this too, descended in Wisconsin until it was donated by a great-great nephew of Robinson to the Chazen.

In the same letter to Cox in which he had mentioned Homer, Robinson wrote, “I have nearly got rid of the desire to do American things, mostly because American life is so unpaintable.” [all laugh] I know, poor Robinson. Not long after he wrote this, Robinson returned to Paris in the spring of 1884, and this painting of a Paris cobbler reveals Robinson’s style the first couple of years he was there. It is similar in subject matter to theMan in a Workshoppainting, and shares a continued interest in Tonalism, representing these similar tones, in this case light browns rather than grays.

However, in 1886, Robinson saw an exhibition of French Impressionist paintings, which he admired for their, quote, “color and luminosity.” And I just wanna pause here for a moment to talk about Impressionism. So, French Impressionism was a radical art movement in the 19th century. It rejected academic traditions and was actually widely disparaged at the time by critics and academic artists, including very vocally, Robinson’s teacher Grme. Impressionist painters found subject matter and inspiration in scenes of modern life and nature, rejecting the traditional emphasis on classicism and history paintings. Impressionist painters encourage painting out-of-doors instead of in studios. Their paintings are also generally characterized by quick, loose, and visible brush strokes, bold applications of color, and careful attention to light and atmospheric conditions. Frequently, they use nontraditional perspectives and horizon lines.

The artists associated with Impressionism had very individual styles and interests in various subjects, right? Their unifying characteristics were more about their interest in modern subjects and a rejection of traditional academic institutions, choosing to exhibit independently rather than, say, in the prestigious Paris Salon, for example. Although Paris Salon often rejected these artists, so there’s probably multiple reasons they were rejecting the institution. Edgar Degas was a core member of the Impressionist group who helped organize their first exhibition in 1874. And his style is quite different, for example, from that of Claude Monet, who has become known, especially here in the United States, as the quintessential Impressionist painter and who would become one of Robinson’s close friends.

This 1885 painting by Claude Monet exemplifies the Impressionist painters’ style and technique at the time Robinson saw the Impressionist exhibition. And at the time, Robinson was beginning to move towards this more Impressionist style. We see a focus on the color and light, as Robinson noted, with the short, quickly-applied brush strokes that are, that is a hallmark of French Impressionism, as it resulted in leaving so-called impressions of form rather than clearly delineated ones. The brushstrokes are highly visible on the canvas, and the human figures in front of the haystack are not well defined, but seem to be one with the landscape. Works like this one clearly made an impression on Robinson, right, but it would be a few years before Robinson himself began to paint in earnest in this Impressionist style. Nevertheless, as we’ll see, he began experimenting a lot more with representing light, color, and perspectives, indicating that he was starting to really absorb some of these techniques.

[clears throat] While in France, Robinson traveled some more, and one of the places he spent time in was Dieppe, known for its cliffs. This drawing by Robinson came from a sketchbook and descended in Robinson’s family with a niece, until it was gifted to a UW-Madison professor, who then later donated it to the Chazen. It was done around the same period as another painting in the Chazen’s collection,On the Cliff, which shows a woman sewing on the cliff at Dieppe. This painting has also been traced to the collection of Robinson’s brother, Hamlin Robinson of Evansville, and it’s dated to June 25, 1887. The Brooklyn Museum has a pastel that is the same subject as this painting. The pastel, which could very well be a study for the painting, has a pencil underdrawing beneath the pastel.

Looking at the pastel next to the painting, we can start to see some of Robinson’s process and continued interest in Tonalism. The pastel is a very simplified application of color and was likely done quite quickly, and we can also see how Robinson stripped down the composition to only the very essential elements, removing unessential details. The oil painting is from a group of small format works on wood panels from these years that all features really sketchy, thinly applied paint. And so, this is an example of work from this very transitional period for the artist. So we can compare it, for example, to this painting of a woman in a field from only about five years earlier, which we’ve already encountered. And I did not realize there would be a reproduction of this painting in this room, and I selected this one. But how fortuitous that we can all look at it again more closely later.

In the Dieppe painting, the woman is less well defined, right? Her figure is defined by color, and it lacks the more rigorous delineation separating the human figure from the landscape that we see in the Nantucket painting. The Nantucket painting pays much greater attention to these details in the forms, and we cannot see, for example, the details in the dress on the left, while the dress on the right has some very visible folds in it. The perspective is also very different. The Dieppe painting feels very flat and our perspective is skewed. When we look at it, we get the sense of having to look upwards, and the broad application of color just increases this kind of sense of flatness. In contrast, the Nantucket painting has a much more traditional perspective, leading the eye backwards and creating a sense of depth in the image.On the Cliffreveals how Robinson again was moving away from his French academic training and more towards Impressionism.

And from Robinson’s diaries, we learned that the woman in the painting is named Marie. Marie was a model who Robinson painted repeatedly. There’s relatively little documentation regarding Marie. She’s known by her first name and referred to in Robinson’s diaries as “M.” Marie and Robinson were in a long-term romantic relationship, and Robinson attempted to persuade Marie to marry him, although she never agreed. Marie presumably lived in Paris, but traveled to Giverny and other locations with Robinson, and he painted her as early as 1885, in this watercolor. [clears throat] Marie is also the woman in this painting at the piano, which was done in Paris in 1887 as well.

In 1890, she had a little girl with her in Giverny who was referred to as her niece, but amongst American travelers was rumored to be the daughter of Theodore Robinson. And rumors would surface later in 1892 after Robinson had returned to New York. Rumors surfaced that he was going to return to France to marry her, right, which he denied. Although Robinson and Marie would continue to correspond until his death after he permanently returned to the United States. And perhaps we can sense some of Robinson’s yearning for her in these and other paintings of Marie. And in these two in particular, she seems very aloof and emotionally unavailable to the viewer, and perhaps to the artist. These two paintings were completed in the same year, but show very different styles, capturing Robinson’s search for a personal, mature style.

Between the spring of 1887 and the end of 1892, Robinson made six sojourns to Giverny, France, where he met and befriended Claude Monet. He stayed for a while at Hotel Baudy, which was set up by its proprietress, Angelina, as an artistic center in Giverny, providing rooms, studio space, and supplies to painters. And we can see Madame Baudy in this little portrait by Robinson. Robinson would eventually move into a home next door to Monet. It’s unclear exactly when Robinson and Monet really became friends. However, Robinson did become one of Monet’s closest American associates, which is notable because Monet became very vocally frustrated and angry with the large number of Americans who traveled to Giverny, even kicking some out of his, like, gardens. [chuckles]

The engraving on the left is from a drawing that Robinson did of the French artist, and itself seems to be based on a photograph that Robinson took. Robinson clearly admired Monet’s work, as he wrote an article forCentury Magazinein 1892 that praised Monet. And he described Monet in a letter to the editor as “the most aggressive, forceful painter, the one whose work is influencing the epoch the most. There is always a delightful sense of movement, vibration, and light.” This engraving appeared alongside the article Robinson wrote, and it captures Monet in a very casual position. Robinson’s friendship with Monet greatly informed Robinson’s development as an artist, and increasing adoption of Impressionism during these years in France. As we will see and discuss more throughout the rest of this presentation.

Robinson regularly painted the French countryside and the local townspeople of Giverny as they went about their daily lives. And throughout his Giverny period, Robinson was also repeatedly drawn to the subject of young peasant women sewing, as we’ve already seen once. This painting represents Marie as well, and stylistically blends Impressionism with Robinson’s earlier realism. The greenery is very thickly-applied paint that blends together tones of blue, yellow, and green in a much more Impressionistic method. However, Marie’s face and figure are clearly rendered, evidence of Robinson’s academic training and commitment to strong figural representation.

Robinson also painted a lot more landscapes during his Giverny period, as with this example. The interest in the local landscape was influenced by Monet and French Impressionism, as Robinson did not regularly paint landscapes before this period. From 1889, Robinson consistently adopted the techniques that we associate with Impressionism, including the more vigorous brush strokes, thicker applications of paint, very bright sunlit compositions, and bold application of color and unusual perspectives and vantage points. And we see all of this, all of these characteristics in this painting,Blossoms at Giverny, dated to 1891.

Robinson likely captured this scene through a window. He was fascinated by how the branches and blossoms create vivid patterns below, and how the vantage point partially obscures the actual view of the figures in the ground below. So, for just in comparison, here’s a detail from theMan in a Workshoppainting from 1882, next to the detail fromBlossoms at Giverny. And you can see how the earlier painting features more carefully controlled brushstrokes and delineated forms. In theBlossomspainting, the colors really just seem to vibrate. On the right is a related painting, and this one captures the same woman and child, but in different positions, presumably just moments later. The branches and shadows remain the primary subject, however, of the painting, or perhaps you could consider the light and shadows the subject of the painting. And one of these was exhibited in New York City in 1895, where a reviewer described it as “a fleeting impression of full fruit boughs, floods of sunshine, and two figures, a child and a girl in light garments.” Robinson was therefore increasingly recognized as a leading American Impressionist from reviewers like this one.

In a related endeavor, Robinson also began engaging in repeating motifs. That is, painting the same subjects. but in different atmospheric conditions, paying attention to light and shadow and capturing how they change over time. These two paintings are excellent examples of this, Sharing the same title, these paintings both feature a haystack in a field. [clears throat] However, the actual subject of the painting is light, and Robinson represents how the shadows and color change depending on the light during different parts of the day.

Now, many of you are probably already familiar with Monet’s work, but this is a practice that Monet also was regularly engaging in and became very well known for, as with a series of haystack paintings that he did around the same time. Robinson was directly influenced by Monet’s practice and this subject. Monet, who hated to be copied, does not actually appear to have minded Robinson’s engagement with the subject, however, a testament to their friendship. Monet complained about other artists who similarly copied him, including American John Leslie Breck, whose work appears here. And I’m including Breck here as a reminder that Robinson was not unique among American artists in adopting Impressionism, nor was he the only American artist working in Giverny.

Robinson continued to use photographs as a compositional aid, a practice that he began back here in Evansville when he was creating crayon portraits from photographs. Robinson argued that photographs helped retain memories of a subject, particularly figures, as things do not remain the same when painting from nature over long periods of time. For example, the light can quickly change. Sometimes, he copied photographs faithfully, but other times, he used artistic license, as this group of photographs and paintings reveal. The photographs on the left feature a woman named Josephine, a villager of Giverny, holding watering cans in various positions around a fountain, and Robinson also painted her in similar poses, likely referring to the photographs but not directly copying them.

Of course, sometimes Robinson did copy directly from photographs. And the photo on the left actually shows grid marks that Robinson used to transfer the image to canvas. And while very hard to see on the screen, the painting also bears traces of a pencil grid underneath the paint. He did make alterations, however, such as the removal of the fourth boat, and this erasure of the boat places much greater emphasis on the two human figures, eliminating an element that would have distracted from their very central presence. It’s worth noting that using photographs also made it much easier to paint indoors. And while Robinson preferred to paint outdoors with natural light, we should remember that he suffered from chronic, severe asthma, and one can imagine that at times, he was confined indoors.

Something else Robinson learned in France was a new appreciation for his American subjects. His friend Monet was devoted to paintinghisnative countryside, and Monet encouraged and inspired American artists to similarly find American subjects to paint and immortalize at home. While Robinson had once described America as “unpaintable,” he later wrote to his friend Hamlin Garland, “I’ve got to go back to what ismycountry. I am only beginning to see its beauties and possibilities, and to feel that affection for a country so indispensable to paint it well.”

Robinson departed France for the last time in December of 1892. One of his last Giverny paintings wasThe Wedding March. This painting is the only known work by Robinson to represent an event, and it commemorates the marriage of Monet’s stepdaughter. Monet’s stepdaughter, Suzanne, married Robinson’s friend and the fellow American artist Theodore Butler. And, so it’s also in some ways, a document of the family’s friendship. And the painting has been hailed as one of Robinson’s great masterpieces. We see the town hall in the upper right corner, and as the figures are marching towards the unseen church for the religious ceremony, they seem to really move towards the viewer, their movement enhanced by the steep diagonals, the perspectives, and the high horizon line. The bride’s veil billows in the wind, and the sunlight is captured by the bright colors and the carefully-defined shadows of each of the figures. Robinson’s description of Monet’s art from earlier also applied to his own here, as it captures the delightful sense of movement, vibration, and light that he also so admired in his friend’s paintings.

Robinson settled in New York City in 1893, but took many excursions, apparently in search of locations that might serve as inspiration the way Giverny once did. Among the places he painted was Cos Cob, Connecticut, where he completed the painting seen on the left. At Cos Cob, he painted the shore and boats, seemingly interested in the way sunlight hit the water. In this particular painting, he presents a schooner from an unusual perspective that makes it very hard to tell the actual scale of the figures and boats in the painting. And the painting on the right is one of several scenes of Union Square he completed in New York City, and this one, a very quiet winter scene.

In 1894, Robinson also began to consciously adopt techniques learned through the study of Japanese prints, and he acquired his first Japanese print for his private collection in 1894, when he stated, “My Japanese print points in a direction I must try and take: an aim for refinement and a kind of precision seen in the best old as well as modern work.” He also asserted, “The Japanese work ought to open one’s eyes to certain things in nature, before almost invisible and a new enjoyment, their infinite variety of compositions, their extraordinary combination of the convention and the reality.” And this scene of boats from Cos Cob, I think, does a really nice job of revealing this influence of Japanese art.

In Robinson’s painting of boats, he was blending observed reality with artistic convention, drawing on these Japanese aesthetic principles. An example of a woodcut by Hiroshige, an artist who is very popular among Americans, is on the right for comparison. Robinson places the boats and sort of the greenery or algae, whatever this is, in such a way to create a pattern that has a very decorative effect. Vertical elements rise from the boats to add an additional pattern, and there’s a high horizon and flattened perspective, which are common attributes in Japanese woodcut prints. The color is also very broadly applied and flattened, with very little detail and variation, much less than one would see in the earlier Robinson paintings. And this creates a nice sort of stacked effect, continuing the linearity and patterning of the composition that really echoes Japanese prints.

Robinson would have also previously encountered Japanese art in France, as many artists were influenced by Japanese esthetics, as this 1876 Monet painting very clearly shows. However, Robinson did not truly start engaging, at least not consciously, with Japanese art until around 1894. And it’s worth noting that many American artists showed a great interest in Japanese art during this period, including yet another great Wisconsin artist that I’m sure is familiar to everyone or almost everyone here. Architect Frank Lloyd Wright would only admit to two direct influences on his designs in his lifetime, and one was Japanese art. In fact, the Hiroshige print I showed you from the Chazen’s collection was actually from Wright’s personal collection of Japanese art. So this is just to say, Robinson’s interest in Japanese art here was part of a much larger trend in American art history.

By this time, Robinson was definitely recognized as one of the most significant working American Impressionist painters, exhibiting at major venues and winning significant awards. He was not the first American to practice Impressionism, however. That honor could arguably belong to Mary Cassatt, who was the only American artist to actuallyexhibitwith the French Impressionists. She participated in their interest in representing the spectacles of modern life, as in this scene of a woman at an opera. As American artists returned from France, Impressionism was embraced quickly in the 1890s, and by 1900 was the most predominant style in the United States. American painters began working in Impressionist styles here at home in the United States, capturing scenes of modern life, as in this Theodore Robinson painting of the Chicago World’s Fair, where four of his paintings were exhibited, includingThe Wedding March.

What set Theodore Robinson apart from his American contemporaries, however, was not only his success in the media, but his known friendship with Claude Monet. Robinson also seems to have found a favorite locale to paint in rural Vermont, near his birthplace in Townsend. He spent time there with his relatives in 1895 and reportedly told his friend, [clears throat] “This year, I got back among the hills I knew when a boy. I am just now beginning to paint subjects that touch me. What I am trying to dothis yearis to express the love I have for the scenes of my native town.”

Sadly, Theodore Robinson died rather unexpectedly of a severe asthma attack in April 1896 at the age of only 43. He died in New York City, and he was buried here in Evansville, where two of his brothers lived near town. As he was remembered by Hamlin Garland, a writer also from Wisconsin, “He was also a Wisconsin man. At least he had spent his youth and early manhood in a small village a few miles below Madison, and still retained a love for the suave and grassy hills and fields of that region.”

Today, Robinson’s drawings, watercolors, and oil paintings can be found in museums’ collections across the country, and his artwork has been exhibited internationally. He continues to be recognized as one of America’s great Impressionist painters. And had his life not been cut short, one wonders what else he might have accomplished as an artist and an instructor and mentor to other American artists. For many years, Evansville schoolchildren visited the Maple Hill Cemetery on Robinson’s birthday to place flowers on his grave. And as the local interests in today’s presentation attests, Robinson remains a beloved figure here in Wisconsin today. Thank you.

[audience applauds]