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Artist or Maker: Theodore Robinson (1852-1896)

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Provenance: European and American Paintings

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Exhibited: New York, Macbeth Gallery,
Theodore Robinson, First Exhibition Since 1895
, 1943, no. 3.
Brooklyn, New York, The Brooklyn Museum,
Theodore Robinson
, 1946, no. 156.
New York, Hirschl & Adler Galleries,
The American Impressionists
, 1968, no. 77.
New York, Hirschl & Adler Galleries,
Retrospective of a Gallery--Twenty Years
, 1973, no. 80.
New York, Hirschl & Adler Galleries,
The Art of Collecting
, 1984, no. 22.

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Notes: Of the many American painters drawn to the French village of Giverny, Theodore Robinson made the most lasting and meaningful contribution to American Impressionism. "The most significant of the American Givernois," writes Dr. William H. Gerdts, "was Theodore Robinson. Though he died quite young, his work received far more critical notice in America than that of other artists during Impressionism's crucial formative years there...Most important, his painting was stronger, more varied, and at its best perhaps more beautiful than that of many of his contemporaries." (American Impressionism, New York, 1984, p. 66)

Painted in 1892 at the height of Robinson's abilities, A Normandy Garden, October reflects the finest qualities of this painter's highly personal vision of American Impressionism. Whereas Robinson's pictures from the late 1880s and earlier were more tightly rendered, it was not until around 1888, when he moved next door to Claude Monet, that he fully adopted the Impressionist aesthetic. And by the early 1890s he had liberated his paint application to create more painterly, livelier surfaces, qualities clearly evident in A Normandy Garden, October.

The present work is one of Robinson's few major canvases of the early 1890s that depicts a well-dressed woman at leisure. This singular figure, in a full white skirt, straw hat with matching ribbon and long-sleeved ruffled bodice, stands in sharp contrast to the bare-armed, sturdy peasant women laundering clothes or tending goats who populate the majority of Robinson's Giverny canvases. The elegant woman in A Normandy Garden, October stands with her head to the side looking into the distance as she commands her surroundings yet seems comfortable in the verdant retreat. Her poise and grace add a note of refinement to the charming rustic setting of this Norman garden.

Robinson acquired a thorough understanding of Impressionism through the work of Claude Monet, yet the American painter was not merely an imitator of the French master. Robinson absorbed Monet's theories and built on them to create works that reflected his personal style of Impressionism. In A Normandy Garden, October, Monet's influence is clearly evident in the broken, lively brushwork and the animated paint surface. However, Robinson's thorough training in draftsmanship can be seen in the firmly drawn figure who stands solidly in three-dimensional space. Sona Johnston notes, "He did not abstract the image before him as Monet had advised. With few exceptions his forms remain solid, firmly-defined, and the subject matter is always clearly identifiable. Although the degree of his initial devotion to Monet's Impressionism is obvious, his art demonstrates a selection and subsequent interpretation of those elements most sympathetic to his manner of expression." (Theodore Robinson, Baltimore, Maryland, 1973, p. xiv)

The brightness radiates in A Normandy Garden, October, a canvas filled with clear, resplendent light--the hallmark of the greatest works of American Impressionism. Robinson has animated the surface of the canvas with delicate touches of carefully modulated color. The palette is largely composed of soft blues, greens, and yellows. However the artist has warmed the overall tonality of the composition with vibrant touches of red and scarlet, which are seen in the tree, on the ground and on the figure's dress. Sensitive to the complexities of softer hues and half-tones, Robinson developed these refined color combinations to harmonize with subtlety. So masterful is the painter's control of sunlight, shadow and color that the surface of the composition shimmers with brilliance, yet each element such as the leafy tree, standing figure and distant wall remains distinct.

Unlike many American painters who converted to the Impressionist aesthetic with little thought, Theodore Robinson continued to question and probe the nature of Impressionism until his early death in 1896. He wrote in his diary in 1894, two years after completing A Normandy Garden, October, "I am impressed with the necessity of synthesis, and ignoring of petty details, and seeing things du grand coté. And this is not incompatible with modernité and the true plein-air feeling. . . Altogether the possibilities are very great for the moderns, but they must draw without ceasing or they will 'get left,' and with the brilliancy and light of real out-doors, combine the austerity, the sobriety, that has always characterized good painting." A Normandy Garden, October represents the requirements of a good picture described by Robinson--the necessity of synthesis, in which he combined sound draftsmanship with flawless observation of light and radiant color to create a painterly composition of enduring beauty.

This painting will be included in the forthcoming catalogue raisonné of the artist's work being compiled by Ira Spanierman and Sona Johnston.