Theodore Robinson

I. Biography

“It is a strange paradox that, innocent of the expressive power of design, he could make of color and of pure naturalism a poetry that is so deeply felt.” – John I.H. Baur 

During the final decade of his life, Theodore Robinson emerged as one of the most intellectually engaged American frontrunners of Impressionism, distinguished both by his theoretical understanding and advancement of the style. Robinson’s extended residence in France afforded him rare and sustained contact with Claude Monet, the movement’s foremost influential innovator. Rather than reproducing Monet’s techniques, Robinson translated them into his own aesthetic language, thereby contributing to the formation of American Impressionism. 

Theodore Robinson was born on June 3, 1852, the third of six children in Irasburg, Vermont. During his lifetime, the family relocated twice, first to Barry, Illinois, in 1855 and then, the following year, to Evansville, Wisconsin. Following in his father’s footsteps initially, he attended a seminary where he received awards for penmanship, an early indication of his skill with draftsmanship, also evident in the portrait sketches he produced in a Methodist hymnal. In 1869, encouraged by his mother, Robinson enrolled at the Chicago Academy of Fine Arts. His studies, however, were cut short by a severe recurrence of asthma—a chronic condition that had deeply afflicted him since childhood—prompting a move to Denver in search of a more favorable climate. This illness would remain a persistent constraint throughout his life.

Robinson’s activities in the early 1870s remain only partially documented, though he appears to have spent up to a year in Denver before returning to Evansville. There, he supported himself by producing crayon portrait enlargements from photographs, saving the proceeds to continue his artistic training. In 1874, he moved to New York to study at the National Academy of Design, one of the nation’s most established institutions for academic art instruction.

Although Robinson’s landscapes received much acclaim, he remained dedicated to painting the human form. He established his interest in the figure early, first with portrait drawing, then with his involvement with the founding of the Art Students League. Quite naturally, Robinson gravitated to Paris where, in 1876, he entered the private atelier of Emile-Auguste Carolus-Duran. At thirty-six years old, Carolus-Duran was a popular portrait painter whose reputation in the United States grew, largely due to his portrait of Mrs. William B. Astor, who was among the leaders of New York society. When he arrived at Carolus-Duran’s atelier, Robinson found himself in the company of such talented compatriots as John Singer Sargent, Carroll Beckwith, Birge Harrison, and Will Hicok Low.

The fruits of Robinson’s academic training began in 1877 with the acceptance of his work, A Young Girl (Une Jeune Fille),  at the Paris Salon. That winter he suffered from asthma, aggravated by the cold, damp weather, yet continued with classes at the Louvre, sketching paintings and sculptures.  In the summer of 1878, an entry in his diary places Robinson in the company of a group of students who made their way south of Paris to the forest of Barbizon. The event of that season was Robinson’s late summer or fall excursion to Venice where he apparently remained for at least a year before returning to New York and setting up an art studio. 

Despite weakened health due to his severe asthma, Robinson continued to travel and immersed himself in French painting, embracing the cosmopolitan current of fin-de-siècle art. He formed his Impressionist style at Giverny, alongside Claude Monet, considered the leader of the French School in the 1880s. Robinson was one of the few artists to work closely with Monet; he stayed at the art colony regularly between 1887 and 1892 and collaborated with Monet on many works. Yet theirs was not a relationship divided between master and pupil: Robinson’s aesthetic developed in response to Monet’s, marked by both convergence and divergence. Even as Robinson adopted Monet’s vigorous handling and heightened surfaces, he remained faithful to the muted tones, solid construction, and volumetric realism of the American tradition.

These areas of divergence became more pronounced after Robinson returned to the United States in December of 1892, as he was determined to reconnect with the American soil. As he adapted his French method to the landscape and art world of the United States, he developed an increasingly complex personal style—showing the beginnings of an evolution from Impressionism to abstraction.

Toward the end of his life, Robinson taught in Greenwich, Connecticut; Napanoch, New York at the Brooklyn Art School; and in Princeton, New Jersey at Evelyn College 1893-94 due to mounting financial pressure. However, one year before his death, Robinson was offered a solo exhibition at the MacBeth gallery. 

In the last year of his life, he went on a number of day-long painting excursions to Haverstraw on the Hudson River and then became fascinated with the Vermont landscape stating in a letter to a friend that “I have found a country in America that charms as much or almost as much of parts of France.” He died on April 2, 1896 during an acute asthma attack in Agnes Cheney’s West 55th Street apartment at the tragic young age of thirty-four. 

II. Chronology

• 1852 Born on July 3rd in Irasburg, Vermont
• 1855 Family moves to Barry, Illinois
• 1856 Family relocates to Evansville, Wisconsin permanently, except for a brief period, 1858-59, in Whitewater, Wisconsin
• 1860 Attends Evansville Seminary
• 1869/70 Studies art in Chicago
• 1874 Studies art at the National Academy of Design
• 1874 Wins a medal in life drawing and assists in the formation of the Arts Students League
• 1876 Travels to France through Normandy and Paris
• 1877 Studies with Carolus-Duran, Gerome, and Benjamin Constant (likely); exhibits first work, A Young Girl (Une Jeune Fille) at the Salon
• 1878 Travels throughout Italy
• 1879 Returns to New York City and establishes a studio at 188 Broadway
• 1880 Rejoins family in Evansville, Wisconsin
• 1881 Returns to New York City and moves his studio to 1267 Broadway; teaches art at Mrs. Sylvanevus Reed’s School
• 1881 Elected to the Society of American Artists
• 1883 Works for Prentice Treadwell decorated the Metropolitan Opera House
• 1884-89 In France–Barbizon, Boissise-la-Bertrande, Dieppe, Paris and Giverny
• 1888 Forms friendship with Monet and actively engages in Impressionist painting
• 1890 Moves his studio to 42 West 15th Street, then 11 East 14th Street, which he kept until his passing
• 1890 Awarded Webb prize at the Society of American Artists
• 1891 Travels back to France and Italy (Capri and Rome)
• 1892 Awarded Shaw Fund at Society of American Artists
• 1892 Joint exhibition held with Theodore Wendel in Boston
• 1893 Travels to Chicago Illinois; Cobham, Virginia; Greenwich, Connecticut; teaches summer classes in Napanoch, New York
• 1894 Teaches at Evelyn College in Princeton, New Jersey
• 1895 Taught at The Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts
• 1895 Solo exhibition at the MacBeth Gallery, New York City
• 1896 Dies on April 2 and is buried in Evansville, Wisconsin

III. Collections

• Addison Gallery of American Art, Phillips Academy, Andover, Massachusetts
• Art Institute of Chicago, Illinois
• Butler Institute of American Art, Youngstown, Ohio
• Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
• Chrysler Museum of Art, Norfolk, Virginia
• Columbus Museum of Art, Ohio
• Fenimore Art Museum, Cooperstown, New York
• Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, California
• Fleming Museum, University of Vermont, Burlington, Vermont
• Georgia Museum of Art, University of Georgia, Athens, Georgia
• Greenwich Historical Society, Greenwich, Connecticut
• High Museum of Art, Atlanta, Georgia
• Los Angeles County Museum of Art, California
• Maier Museum of Art, Randolph College, Lynchburg, Virginia
• Mead Art Museum, Amherst College, Massachusetts
• The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, New York
• Minneapolis Institute of Arts, Minnesota
• Montclair Art Museum, New Jersey
• Musée des impressionnismes Giverny, France
• Museo Nacional Thyssen-Bornemisza, Madrid, Spain
• Museum of Art at Brigham Young University, Provo, Utah
• Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Massachusetts
• Museum of Fine Arts-St. Petersburg, Florida
• Muskegon Museum of Art, Muskegon, Michigan
• Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington D.C.
• New Britain Museum of American Art, Connecticut
• New Orleans Museum of Art, Louisiana
• North Carolina Museum of Art, Raleigh, North Carolina
• Parrish Art Museum, Water Mill, New York
• Phoenix Art Museum, Arizona
• RISD Museum, Providence, Rhode Island
• San Diego Museum of Art, California
• Sheldon Museum of Art, Lincoln, Nebraska
• Smith College Museum of Art, Northampton, Massachusetts
• Spencer Museum of Art, Lawrence, Kansas
• The Arkell Museum at Canajoharie, New York
• The Art Museum, Princeton University, New Jersey
• The Baltimore Museum of Art, Maryland
• The Brooklyn Museum of Art, New York
• The Columbus Museum of Art, Georgia
• The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Missouri
• The Newark Museum of Art, New Jersey
• The Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
• The Phillips Collection, Washington, D.C.
• The Toledo Museum of Art, Ohio
• University of Michigan Museum of Art, Ann Arbor, Michigan
• Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art, Hartford, Connecticut
• White House Historical Association, Washington, D.C.
• Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, New York
• Wright Museum of Art, Beloit College, Wisconsin
• Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven, Connecticut

IV. Exhibitions

• 1877 Paris Salon, France
• 1892 Williams and Everett Gallery, Boston, Paintings in Oil and Pastel by Theodore Robinson and Theodore Wendel
• 1893, 1896 National Academy of Design Annual Exhibitions, New York City
• 1893-94 Pennsylvania Academy of The Fine Arts, Philadelphia Pennsylvania
• 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition, Chicago, Illinois
• 1895 Macbeth Gallery, New York City, Theodore Robinson 
• 1946-1947 Brooklyn Museum, New York, Theodore Robinson, 1852–1896
• 1964 Memorial Union Gallery, University of Wisconsin, Madison, Theodore Robinson
• 1973 Baltimore Museum of Art; Columbus (Ohio) Gallery of Fine Arts; Worcester Art Museum; Joslyn Art Museum, Omaha; Munson-Williams-Proctor Institute, Utica, Theodore Robinson
• 1987 Paine Art Center and Arboretum, Oshkosh, Wisconsin; Dixon Gallery and Gardens, Memphis; Indianapolis Museum of Art, 12 April – 29 November, The Figural Images of Theodore Robinson, American Impressionist
• 2004-5 Baltimore Museum of Art; Phoenix Museum of Art; Wadsworth Atheneum, Boston, In Monet’s Light: Theodore Robinson at Giverny
• 2007 Musée d’Art Américain Giverny; San Diego Museum of Art, Impressionist Giverny: A Colony of Artists, 1885-1915
• 2010-11 Kitakyushu Municipal Museum of Art; Bunkamura Museum of Art; Okayama Prefectural Museum of Art, Monet and the Artists of Giverny: The Beginning of American Impressionism

V. Memberships

• Society of American Artists
• National Academy of Design

VI. Notes

1. John I. H. Baur, Theodore Robinson, 1852-1896 (The Brooklyn Museum, 1946), 52.

VII. Suggested Resources

• John I. H. Baur, Theodore Robinson, 1852-1896 (The Brooklyn Museum, 1946). 
• Sona Johnston, et al.  In Monet’s Light : Theodore Robinson at Giverny (Philip Wilson Publishers, 2004). 
• Baltimore Museum of Art, Theodore Robinson, 1852-1896. Baltimore Museum of Art Catalogues 1973-1979 (Baltimore Museum of Art, 1973).