Portrait of Theodore Earl Butler

Gazing steadily at the viewer, painter Theodore Earl Butler poses sitting in a wooden armchair in William Howard Hart's portrait. Butler gazes calmly at the viewer, his hands gathered in his lap. He wears a light-colored suit and spotted tie partially covered by his long, untrimmed beard. The light green of the wall that forms a background for the figure is echoed in the pale tones of his attire. In Butler's face, the careful detail and modeling of contours, especially in the eyes and nose, give way to a series of oblique dashes of paint enlivening the surface of the forehead and left cheek. In the background the tones are scumbled (blurred by being blended with a nearly dry brush) for a slightly shimmering effect, and a variety of nervous linear strokes suggest the rumpled texture of Butler's linen suit.

The occasionally sketchy nature of the paint application in this otherwise solidly realized representation testifies to the influence on Hart of impressionism, the use of divided brushstrokes of bright color to capture fleeting optical effects. Hart was a member of the colony of impressionist painters that flourished in the decades immediately around the turn of the twentieth century in the rural village of Giverny, in Normandy, France, where this portrait was made. Little is known of Hart's artistic output during his long association with Giverny, but in the 1890s he was among the more permanent residents among its expatriate community and a close friend of Butler. The son-in-law of Giverny's most famous inhabitant, French painter Claude Monet (1830–1926), Butler was an enthusiastic practitioner of impressionism. He is said to have greatly respected Hart's views on artistic matters and to have consulted him about his own paintings. Known affectionately as "Peggy," Hart was also close to the Butler family and a frequent model for his friend, who, due to the poor health of his wife, increasingly confined himself to indoor depictions of domestic life. In 1897 alone, Butler painted Hart and members of his own family in The Card Players (TF 1992.21) and in at least three single-figure portraits. One of them shows Hart playing the card game Solitaire at a small white table. Now in a private collection, the portrait by Butler of Hart shares the background, chair, and pose of the figure seen in this portrait of Hart by Butler. The correspondence between the two images suggests they were made as a mutual activity—perhaps for exchange between these two intimate friends—although Butler is not known to have owned Hart's portrait of him.

Visages de l'Amérique: de George Washington à Marilyn Monroe (Faces of America: From George Washington to Marilyn Monroe), Musée d'Art Américain Giverny, France (organizer). Venue: Musée d'Art Américain Giverny, France, April 1–October 31, 2004. [exh. cat.]

Twarze Ameryki: Portrety z kolekcji Terra Foundation for American Art, 1770–1940 (Faces of America: Portraits from the collection of the Terra Foundation for American Art, 1770–1940), Musée d'Art Américain Giverny, France and Miedzynarodowe Centrum Kultury (International Cultural Center), Crakow, Poland (organizers). Venue: International Cultural Center, Crakow, Poland, February 15–May 7, 2006. [exh. cat.]

Impressionist Giverny: A Colony of Artists, 1885–1915, Musée d'Art Américain Giverny, France (organizer). Venues: Musée d'Art Américain Giverny, France, April 1–July 1, 2007; San Diego Museum of Art, San Diego, CA, July 21–October 14, 2007. [exh. cat.]

Impressionist Giverny: The Americans, 1885–1915, Selections from the Terra Foundation for American Art, Terra Foundation for American Art, Chicago, Illinois (organizer). Venues: Florence Griswold Museum of Art, Old Lyme, Connecticut, May 3–July 27, 2008; Albany Institute of History & Art, Albany, New York, August 23, 2008–January 4, 2009.

Monet and the Artists of Giverny: The Beginning of American Impressionism, The Bunkamura Museum of Art, Tokyo, Japan with the Terra Foundation for American Art, Chicago, Illinois (organizers). Venues: Kitakyushu Municipal Museum of Art, Kitakyushu, Japan, October 9–November 28, 2010; The Bunkamura Museum of Art, Tokyo, Japan, December 7, 2010–February 17, 2011; The Okayama Prefectural Museum of Art, Okayama, Japan, February 25–April 10, 2011. [exh. cat.]

Love, Richard H. Theodore Earl Butler: Emergence from Monet's Shadow. Chicago, Illinois: Haase-Mumm Publishing Company, Inc., 1985. Text p. 174; pl. 25 (color).

Gerdts, William H. Monet's Giverny: An Impressionist Colony. New York: Abbeville Press Publishers, 1993. Fig. 178, p. 215 (color).

Kennedy, Elizabeth and Sophie Lévy. Faces of America: Portraits of the Terra Foundation for the Arts Collection, 1770–1940. (exh. cat., Musée d'Art Américain Giverny). Chicago, Illinois: Terra Foundation for the Arts, 2004. Text pp. 15, 32 (checklist); ill. p. 57 (color).

Kennedy, Elizabeth and Sophie Lévy. Visages de l'Amérique: le portrait dans la collection de la Terra Foundation for the Arts, 1770–1940. (exh. cat., Musée d'Art Américain Giverny). Chicago, Illinois: Terra Foundation for the Arts, 2004. Text pp. 15, 32 (checklist); ill. p. 57 (color).

Lévy, Sophie, et al. Twarze Ameryki: Portrety z kolekcji Terra Foundation for American Art, 1770–1940/Faces of America: Portraits from the collection of the Terra Foundation for American Art, 1770–1940. (exh. cat. International Cultural Center). Cracow, Poland: International Cultural Center, 2006. Ill. p. 84 (color).

Bourguignon, Katherine M. et al. Impressionist Giverny: A Colony of Artists, 1885–1915. (exh. cat. Musée d'Art Américain Giverny). Chicago, Illinois: Terra Foundation for American Art, 2007. Text p. 207 (checklist); cat. p. 148 (color).

Bourguignon, Katherine M., Shunsuke Kijima and Sanjiro Minamikawa. Monet and the Artists of Giverny: The Beginning of American Impressionism. (exh. cat. Kitakyushu Municipal Museum of Art, The Bunkamura Museum of Art, Tokyo, and The Okayama Prefectural Museum of Art). Fukuoka, Japan: The Nishinippon Shimbun, 2010. Text cat. no. 64, pp.15, 127 (in Japanese), 18, 188 (in English); ill. fig 9, p.11 (black & white), 127 (color).