Theodore Earl Butler
Encyclopedia
Theodore Earl Butler, an American impressionist
painter
, he was born in Columbus, Ohio
and died in Giverny
, France, May 2, 1936.
in Ohio and graduated in 1882. He studied at the Art Students League with James Carroll Beckwith
, Kenyon Cox
and J. Alden Weir
, and under William Merritt Chase
from 1884 to 1886. One of Butler’s first paintings is a copy of Menippus by Diego Velázquez
(1639–1641) Standing Bearded Man, 1885. Butler then moved to study in Paris. Many hundreds of American art students came to France during the late 19th century to study art. Some even enrolled at the Ecole des Beaux Arts in Paris. To be considered for entry, students had to pass an intense entrance exam given in French.
In Paris, Butler enrolled at La Grande-Chaumière, Atelier Colarossi and at Académie Julian
. Pierre Bonnard
and Édouard Vuillard
studied at Academy Julian in 1888-1889. Butler studied under Emile Carolus Duran. Carolus (who was a close friend of Claude Monet
) said "when you can paint and draw the human figure you can do everything else”. Carolus opened an art studio in 1873 on Boulevard Montparnasse, called the “81”. His studio began with twelve students including James Carroll Beckwith and Will Low
. The following year John Singer Sargent
, a friend of Paul César Helleu
joined them. Sargent and Claude Monet had become close friends in 1876 and there was much correspondence between them. Carolus, who was also known to have given free private lessons to some painters, introduced his students to the work of Claude Monet. Monet had moved to Giverny on April 29, 1883. Butler stayed for some time in the same building as Carolus, and Butler won an honorable mention in 1888 at the Paris Salon
for a painting entitled “La Veuve”, (the Widow).
included John Leslie Breck, Frederick Carl Frieseke
, Edmund Greacen
, Philip Leslie Hale, Willard Metcalf
, Lilla Cabot Perry
, Theodore Robinson
and Guy Rose
. On July 3 Butler and Robinson had dinner at Monet’s house.
Angelina and Lucien Baudy opened Hotel Baudy in June 1887. The Hotel became the hub for many American Expatriates. At Hotel Baudy, Artists could buy canvases from Lefevre Foinet and American food celebrating Thanksgiving was served. The village began to attract a great deal of attention. According to Terra Museum
historians Katherine M Bourguignon and Vanessa Lecomte, over 350 painters from eighteen countries painted in Giverny.
An exhibition of foreign artists including Butler, Meteyard, Fox, Dice, Stasburg and Dawson Watson was organized from January 31, 1892 to February 1892.
After becoming close friends with Claude Monet, Butler married Monet's stepdaughter, Suzanne Hoschedé
in 1892.
Suzanne is known as The woman with a Parasol and she was Claude Monet’s favorite model. The event of their marriage is described by Theodore Robinson in his diaries as
a great day - The marriage of Butler and Mlle. Suzanne." Everybody nearly at the church - the peasants - many almost unrecognizable. Picard very fine, the wedding party in full dress – ceremony first at the mairie - then at the church. Monet entering first with Suzanne, then Butler and Mme. H (Hoschede). Considerable feeling on the part of the parents - a breakfast at the atelier – lasting most of the afternoon. Frequent showers, champagne and gaiety - … Dinner and evening at the Monet's - bride and groom left at 7:3 for the Paris train.
The event was also immortalized by a painting by Theodore Robinson titled The Wedding March. Theodore Butler became a key player and link between the American Colony and Claude Monet. The Butler family organized many dinners such as one held October 25, 1892 with Robinson, Hale, Hart and Marthe Hoschedé. Butler painted with emotion, sincerity and intensity. “I’m making great culinary preparations for the winter.” Theodore decided to buy an orchard and built a new house. “We, Suzanne and Jimmy and I wish that you were here we’d like to see you first rate. I have been working some, about half as much as I should - perhaps less - We are building a house back of Peggy’s in that little orchard you must remember. Said house is to be a wonder of elegance and taste - You will see it next year perhaps.”
Butler participated in the publication and conception of the Courier Innocent. He did the cover and illustrated many pages. Butler painted a series of his own family: son Jimmy Butler born in 1893, and daughter Lilly Butler born in 1894. Those paintings described the daily life of his family. Most of them were done indoors. Those paintings included series' entitled The Bath, After the Bath, and Playing with Jimmy. Butler developed his own impressionist style with light palettes and loose brushstrokes, reminiscent of works done by Edouard Vuillard and Pierre Bonnard. From his garden he did a lot of landscapes showing the church of Giverny, The Demoiselles (small haystacks) and the grain stacks.
After a lingering illness, Suzanne Hoschede died in 1899. Thereafter most of Butler’s paintings were landscapes. Marthe Hoschede, Suzanne’s sister helped Butler raise Jimmy and Lilly. In 1899 Theodore Earl Butler decided to go back to the United States
. A letter from Henry Prellwitz to Philip Leslie Hale indicated that Hart told him that Butler will sail on the 16th of September on La Touraine [1899].
“Dear Phil- Are you going to New York to meet Hart and Butler ? I remember hearing last spring something of that effect - In a letter just received from Hart he says they “sail on the 16th on “La Touraine“ and should arrive in New York Sunday the 24th. Possibly Saturday p.m. although I doubt it” I shall go in to town on Saturday to meet them.”
He had several one man shows in New York
. He exhibited in 1900, at Paul Durand-Ruel
gallery in New York.
Never having gone up on a balloon. I do not know how the Statue of Liberty
looks out of the clouds, but will grant that Mr. Theodore E. Butler whose work is being shown at the Durand-Ruel Galleries, knows about it. A like vantage point is needed to recognize the Nuremberg toys-house, which serve as accessories to the artist’s idealization of the Brooklyn Bridge. Mr. Butler moves in another sphere from common folk, and his retina must have a peculiar faculty for chromatic analysis. The extreme of his remarkable vision is witnessed in the evening meal”. N 13, which is wondrously made. There is an attempt to lift these excesses to an airy height by adding a poetic flavor in the titles as in No. 24. “Rain Clouds”: but if the title is correct it must have been raining bricks, for there is no misty vapory thinness: everything is as solidly packed as a steamer trunk-hence the elevated conceit comes down with a dull thud. No 3 “A Floating Mist" and Nos. 5 and 11, showing the same haystack under the baptism of an opalescent and an autumn sunrise declare some better work. Claude Monet, the great luminarist, who proved at least to the world the reasonableness of his artistic conceptions may not be proud of his Giverny pupil who should rub up against some of his own American trees and get down out of the clouds.
After six months he was back in Giverny
. He married Marthe Hoschedé, Suzanne's sister in 1900. Marriages to Claude Monet’s two step daughters brought him closer to Monet than any other of the American expatriates. Blanche Hoschedé Monet
, John Singer Sargent, and James P. Butler, Theodore's son, were the only other painters who ever painted in Claude Monet’s garden although John Leslie Breck might have done one painting. This painting clearly shows the house of Claude Monet, and Blanche and Claude Monet at their easels.
The Butler family and the Rose family, Ethel and Guy Rose, spent a lot of time together. They rented during the summer time houses in Veules les Roses. He was also a close friend of Philip Hale
, John Singer Sargent
, and Maximilien Luce
.
. He contributed two paintings to the 1913 Armory Show
in New York City, Marine and Fourteenth of July, Paris. He founded with his friend, John Sloan, the Society of Independent Artists
and served on its board from 1918 to 1921. The breakout of World War I
prevented Butler from returning to Giverny until 1921.
In the meantime, Butler became involved with the American Red Cross
and raised funds with Marthe Hoschedé. He marked that occasion with a painting titled “All Together”.
American Impressionism
Impressionism, a style of painting characterized by loose brushwork and vivid colors, was practiced widely among American artists in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.-An emerging artistic style from Paris:...
painter
Painting
Painting is the practice of applying paint, pigment, color or other medium to a surface . The application of the medium is commonly applied to the base with a brush but other objects can be used. In art, the term painting describes both the act and the result of the action. However, painting is...
, he was born in Columbus, Ohio
Columbus, Ohio
Columbus is the capital of and the largest city in the U.S. state of Ohio. The broader metropolitan area encompasses several counties and is the third largest in Ohio behind those of Cleveland and Cincinnati. Columbus is the third largest city in the American Midwest, and the fifteenth largest city...
and died in Giverny
Giverny
Giverny is a commune in the Eure department in north-western France. It is best known as the location of Claude Monet's garden and home.-Location:Giverny sits on the "right bank" of the River Seine where the river Epte meets the Seine...
, France, May 2, 1936.
Biography
Theodore studied at Marietta CollegeMarietta College
Marietta College is a co-educational private college in Marietta, Ohio, USA, which was the first permanent settlement of the Northwest Territory. The school offers 42 majors along with a large number of minors, all of which are grounded in a strong liberal arts foundation...
in Ohio and graduated in 1882. He studied at the Art Students League with James Carroll Beckwith
James Carroll Beckwith
James Carroll Beckwith was an American landscape, portrait and genre painter whose Impressionist style led to his recognition in the late nineteenth century as a prominent figure in American art.-Biography:...
, Kenyon Cox
Kenyon Cox
Kenyon Cox was an American painter, illustrator, muralist, writer, and teacher. Cox was an influential and important early instructor at the Art Students League of New York...
and J. Alden Weir
J. Alden Weir
Julian Alden Weir was an American impressionist painter and member of the Cos Cob Art Colony near Greenwich, Connecticut...
, and under William Merritt Chase
William Merritt Chase
William Merritt Chase was an American painter known as an exponent of Impressionism and as a teacher. He is also responsible for establishing the Chase School, which later would become Parsons The New School for Design.- Early life and training :He was born in Williamsburg , Indiana, to the family...
from 1884 to 1886. One of Butler’s first paintings is a copy of Menippus by Diego Velázquez
Diego Velázquez
Diego Rodríguez de Silva y Velázquez was a Spanish painter who was the leading artist in the court of King Philip IV. He was an individualistic artist of the contemporary Baroque period, important as a portrait artist...
(1639–1641) Standing Bearded Man, 1885. Butler then moved to study in Paris. Many hundreds of American art students came to France during the late 19th century to study art. Some even enrolled at the Ecole des Beaux Arts in Paris. To be considered for entry, students had to pass an intense entrance exam given in French.
In Paris, Butler enrolled at La Grande-Chaumière, Atelier Colarossi and at Académie Julian
Académie Julian
The Académie Julian was an art school in Paris, France.Rodolphe Julian established the Académie Julian in 1868 at the Passage des Panoramas, as a private studio school for art students. The Académie Julian not only prepared students to the exams at the prestigious École des Beaux-Arts, but offered...
. Pierre Bonnard
Pierre Bonnard
Pierre Bonnard was a French painter and printmaker, as well as a founding member of Les Nabis.-Biography:...
and Édouard Vuillard
Édouard Vuillard
Jean-Édouard Vuillard was a French painter and printmaker associated with the Nabis.-Early years and education:...
studied at Academy Julian in 1888-1889. Butler studied under Emile Carolus Duran. Carolus (who was a close friend of Claude Monet
Claude Monet
Claude Monet was a founder of French impressionist painting, and the most consistent and prolific practitioner of the movement's philosophy of expressing one's perceptions before nature, especially as applied to plein-air landscape painting. . Retrieved 6 January 2007...
) said "when you can paint and draw the human figure you can do everything else”. Carolus opened an art studio in 1873 on Boulevard Montparnasse, called the “81”. His studio began with twelve students including James Carroll Beckwith and Will Low
Will Hicok Low
Will Hicok Low was a United States artist and writer on art.-Biography:He was born at Albany, New York. In 1873 he entered the atelier of Jean-Léon Gérôme in the École des Beaux Arts at Paris, subsequently joining the classes of Carolus-Duran, with whom he remained until 1877...
. The following year John Singer Sargent
John Singer Sargent
John Singer Sargent was an American artist, considered the "leading portrait painter of his generation" for his evocations of Edwardian era luxury. During his career, he created roughly 900 oil paintings and more than 2,000 watercolors, as well as countless sketches and charcoal drawings...
, a friend of Paul César Helleu
Paul César Helleu
Paul César Helleu was a French artist best known for his portraits of many of the most famous and beautiful women of his time including the Duchess of Marlborough, the Countess of Greffulhe, the Marchesa Casati and Belle da Costa Greene.-Biography:He was born in Vannes, Brittany, France...
joined them. Sargent and Claude Monet had become close friends in 1876 and there was much correspondence between them. Carolus, who was also known to have given free private lessons to some painters, introduced his students to the work of Claude Monet. Monet had moved to Giverny on April 29, 1883. Butler stayed for some time in the same building as Carolus, and Butler won an honorable mention in 1888 at the Paris Salon
Paris Salon
The Salon , or rarely Paris Salon , beginning in 1725 was the official art exhibition of the Académie des Beaux-Arts in Paris, France. Between 1748–1890 it was the greatest annual or biannual art event in the Western world...
for a painting entitled “La Veuve”, (the Widow).
Butler at Giverny
Butler signed the register under number 11 at Hotel Baudy in 1888 (May 20- September 1888.) along with Theodore Wendel, an Ohioan who also studied at Academy Julian. Butler stayed again at Hotel Baudy from October 1891 until July 21, 1892. Besides heimself, other American painters who spent time in GivernyGiverny
Giverny is a commune in the Eure department in north-western France. It is best known as the location of Claude Monet's garden and home.-Location:Giverny sits on the "right bank" of the River Seine where the river Epte meets the Seine...
included John Leslie Breck, Frederick Carl Frieseke
Frederick Carl Frieseke
Frederick Carl Frieseke was an American Impressionist painter who spent most of his life as an expatriate in France. An influential member of the Giverny art colony, his paintings often concentrated on various effects of dappled sunlight...
, Edmund Greacen
Edmund Greacen
Edmund Greacen was an American Impressionist painter.He was born in New York City, New York. He graduated from New York University. After traveling around the world he entered the Art Students League of New York. He also took classes at the New York School of Art, where he studied with William...
, Philip Leslie Hale, Willard Metcalf
Willard Metcalf
Willard Leroy Metcalf was an American artist born in Lowell, Massachusetts. He studied at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, and later attended Académie Julian, Paris. After early figure-painting and illustration, he became prominent as a landscape painter...
, Lilla Cabot Perry
Lilla Cabot Perry
Lilla Cabot Perry was an American artist who worked in the Impressionist style, rendering portraits and landscapes in the free form manner of her mentor, Claude Monet. Perry was an early advocate of the French Impressionist style and contributed to its reception in the United States...
, Theodore Robinson
Theodore Robinson
Theodore Robinson was an American painter best known for his impressionist landscapes. He was one of the first American artists to take up impressionism in the late 1880s, visiting Giverny and developing a close friendship with Claude Monet...
and Guy Rose
Guy Rose
Guy Rose was an American Impressionist painter who is recognized as one of California's top impressionist painters of the late 19th and early 20th centuries....
. On July 3 Butler and Robinson had dinner at Monet’s house.
Angelina and Lucien Baudy opened Hotel Baudy in June 1887. The Hotel became the hub for many American Expatriates. At Hotel Baudy, Artists could buy canvases from Lefevre Foinet and American food celebrating Thanksgiving was served. The village began to attract a great deal of attention. According to Terra Museum
Terra Museum
The Terra Museum of American Art was an art museum founded by Daniel J. Terra in Evanston, Illinois in 1980. The museum was relocated to Chicago in 1987. Charged by the Terra Foundation for the Arts, now known as the Terra Foundation for American Art, with exhibiting and interpreting original...
historians Katherine M Bourguignon and Vanessa Lecomte, over 350 painters from eighteen countries painted in Giverny.
An exhibition of foreign artists including Butler, Meteyard, Fox, Dice, Stasburg and Dawson Watson was organized from January 31, 1892 to February 1892.
After becoming close friends with Claude Monet, Butler married Monet's stepdaughter, Suzanne Hoschedé
Suzanne Hoschedé
Suzanne Hoschedé , was the eldest daughter of Alice Hoschedé and Ernest Hoschedé, the stepdaughter and favorite model of French impressionist painter Claude Monet, and wife of American impressionist painter Theodore Earl Butler...
in 1892.
Suzanne is known as The woman with a Parasol and she was Claude Monet’s favorite model. The event of their marriage is described by Theodore Robinson in his diaries as
a great day - The marriage of Butler and Mlle. Suzanne." Everybody nearly at the church - the peasants - many almost unrecognizable. Picard very fine, the wedding party in full dress – ceremony first at the mairie - then at the church. Monet entering first with Suzanne, then Butler and Mme. H (Hoschede). Considerable feeling on the part of the parents - a breakfast at the atelier – lasting most of the afternoon. Frequent showers, champagne and gaiety - … Dinner and evening at the Monet's - bride and groom left at 7:3 for the Paris train.
The event was also immortalized by a painting by Theodore Robinson titled The Wedding March. Theodore Butler became a key player and link between the American Colony and Claude Monet. The Butler family organized many dinners such as one held October 25, 1892 with Robinson, Hale, Hart and Marthe Hoschedé. Butler painted with emotion, sincerity and intensity. “I’m making great culinary preparations for the winter.” Theodore decided to buy an orchard and built a new house. “We, Suzanne and Jimmy and I wish that you were here we’d like to see you first rate. I have been working some, about half as much as I should - perhaps less - We are building a house back of Peggy’s in that little orchard you must remember. Said house is to be a wonder of elegance and taste - You will see it next year perhaps.”
Butler participated in the publication and conception of the Courier Innocent. He did the cover and illustrated many pages. Butler painted a series of his own family: son Jimmy Butler born in 1893, and daughter Lilly Butler born in 1894. Those paintings described the daily life of his family. Most of them were done indoors. Those paintings included series' entitled The Bath, After the Bath, and Playing with Jimmy. Butler developed his own impressionist style with light palettes and loose brushstrokes, reminiscent of works done by Edouard Vuillard and Pierre Bonnard. From his garden he did a lot of landscapes showing the church of Giverny, The Demoiselles (small haystacks) and the grain stacks.
After a lingering illness, Suzanne Hoschede died in 1899. Thereafter most of Butler’s paintings were landscapes. Marthe Hoschede, Suzanne’s sister helped Butler raise Jimmy and Lilly. In 1899 Theodore Earl Butler decided to go back to the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
. A letter from Henry Prellwitz to Philip Leslie Hale indicated that Hart told him that Butler will sail on the 16th of September on La Touraine [1899].
“Dear Phil- Are you going to New York to meet Hart and Butler ? I remember hearing last spring something of that effect - In a letter just received from Hart he says they “sail on the 16th on “La Touraine“ and should arrive in New York Sunday the 24th. Possibly Saturday p.m. although I doubt it” I shall go in to town on Saturday to meet them.”
He had several one man shows in New York
New York
New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
. He exhibited in 1900, at Paul Durand-Ruel
Paul Durand-Ruel
Paul Durand-Ruel was a French art dealer who is associated with the Impressionists. He was one of the first modern art dealers who provided support to his painters with stipends and solo exhibitions....
gallery in New York.
Never having gone up on a balloon. I do not know how the Statue of Liberty
Statue of Liberty
The Statue of Liberty is a colossal neoclassical sculpture on Liberty Island in New York Harbor, designed by Frédéric Bartholdi and dedicated on October 28, 1886...
looks out of the clouds, but will grant that Mr. Theodore E. Butler whose work is being shown at the Durand-Ruel Galleries, knows about it. A like vantage point is needed to recognize the Nuremberg toys-house, which serve as accessories to the artist’s idealization of the Brooklyn Bridge. Mr. Butler moves in another sphere from common folk, and his retina must have a peculiar faculty for chromatic analysis. The extreme of his remarkable vision is witnessed in the evening meal”. N 13, which is wondrously made. There is an attempt to lift these excesses to an airy height by adding a poetic flavor in the titles as in No. 24. “Rain Clouds”: but if the title is correct it must have been raining bricks, for there is no misty vapory thinness: everything is as solidly packed as a steamer trunk-hence the elevated conceit comes down with a dull thud. No 3 “A Floating Mist" and Nos. 5 and 11, showing the same haystack under the baptism of an opalescent and an autumn sunrise declare some better work. Claude Monet, the great luminarist, who proved at least to the world the reasonableness of his artistic conceptions may not be proud of his Giverny pupil who should rub up against some of his own American trees and get down out of the clouds.
After six months he was back in Giverny
Giverny
Giverny is a commune in the Eure department in north-western France. It is best known as the location of Claude Monet's garden and home.-Location:Giverny sits on the "right bank" of the River Seine where the river Epte meets the Seine...
. He married Marthe Hoschedé, Suzanne's sister in 1900. Marriages to Claude Monet’s two step daughters brought him closer to Monet than any other of the American expatriates. Blanche Hoschedé Monet
Blanche Hoschedé Monet
Blanche Hoschedé Monet is a French painter who was both the step daughter and the daughter-in law of Claude Monet. She was born in Paris, November 10, 1865 and died in Giverny in 1947.-Biography:...
, John Singer Sargent, and James P. Butler, Theodore's son, were the only other painters who ever painted in Claude Monet’s garden although John Leslie Breck might have done one painting. This painting clearly shows the house of Claude Monet, and Blanche and Claude Monet at their easels.
The Butler family and the Rose family, Ethel and Guy Rose, spent a lot of time together. They rented during the summer time houses in Veules les Roses. He was also a close friend of Philip Hale
Philip Hale
Philip Hale was an American music critic.An 1876 graduate of Yale University, Hale practiced law upon leaving college, also studying piano with John Kautz and playing the organ in a church...
, John Singer Sargent
John Singer Sargent
John Singer Sargent was an American artist, considered the "leading portrait painter of his generation" for his evocations of Edwardian era luxury. During his career, he created roughly 900 oil paintings and more than 2,000 watercolors, as well as countless sketches and charcoal drawings...
, and Maximilien Luce
Maximilien Luce
Maximilien Luce was a French Neo-impressionist artist. A printmaker, painter, and anarchist, Luce is best known for his pointillist canvases. He grew up in the working class Montparnasse, and became a painter of landscapes and urban scenes which frequently emphasize the activities of people at work...
.
Butler in the USA (1913-1921)
In 1913, the Butler family moved to New York when Butler got a commission to paint mural panels for the home of William PaineWilliam A. Paine
William Alfred Paine was an American businessman who co-founded the stock brokerage firm, Paine Webber....
. He contributed two paintings to the 1913 Armory Show
Armory Show
Many exhibitions have been held in the vast spaces of U.S. National Guard armories, but the Armory Show refers to the 1913 International Exhibition of Modern Art that was organized by the Association of American Painters and Sculptors...
in New York City, Marine and Fourteenth of July, Paris. He founded with his friend, John Sloan, the Society of Independent Artists
Society of Independent Artists
Society of Independent Artists was an association of American artists founded in 1916 and based in New York.Based on the French Société des Artistes Indépendants, the goal of the society was to hold annual exhibitions by avant-garde artists. Exhibitions were to be open to anyone who wanted to...
and served on its board from 1918 to 1921. The breakout of World War I
World War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
prevented Butler from returning to Giverny until 1921.
In the meantime, Butler became involved with the American Red Cross
American Red Cross
The American Red Cross , also known as the American National Red Cross, is a volunteer-led, humanitarian organization that provides emergency assistance, disaster relief and education inside the United States. It is the designated U.S...
and raised funds with Marthe Hoschedé. He marked that occasion with a painting titled “All Together”.
Ancestry
Courtland Philip Livingston Butler, Theodore Earl Butler’s father is US President George W.Bush paternal great-great grandfather.External links
- artcyclopedia
- http://www.art-giverny.com