Giverny, Moonlight

Thomas Buford Meteyard’s Giverny, Moonlight combines such aspects of impressionism as the local setting and rapid execution with a nocturnal theme and haunted mood more typical of the movement known as symbolism. The painting’s intimate—and portable—size complements its quiet subject: a deserted moonlight-flooded lane in a rural village. Meteyard used blurred outlines and broad, simplified areas of subtly textured pigment for shimmering effect to render the moonlight’s reduction of buildings, road, trees, and hillside to their component forms. The windowless facades of the buildings create an air of isolation and mystery, while the abrupt termination of the road in the distance and the bar of dark shadow cast across it by an undefined source beyond the right edge of the composition further transform this humble, everyday scene into a nocturnal landscape of hushed mystery.

Between 1890 and 1893, Meteyard spent several summers in Giverny, a rural village in Normandy, France. He was one of a number of international artists attracted there in part by the presence of impressionist painter Claude Monet (1840–1926) and by the subjects afforded by the town, its inhabitants, and the surrounding landscape. Meteyard was not the only, or the first, American artist either to paint the back lanes of Giverny or to show the town by night: in the spring of 1890, for example, American painter John Leslie Breck created several nocturnal views of Giverny that won Meteyard’s praise. In searching for his individual artistic voice, however, Meteyard seized on the nocturne as his own, picturing the village in a series of moonlight oils and watercolors.

Thomas Buford Meteyard (1865–1928): Paintings and Watercolors, Berry-Hill Galleries, Inc., New York, New York (organizer). Venue: Berry-Hill Galleries, Inc., New York, New York, September 13–October 7, 1989. [exh. cat.]

Impressions de toujours: les peintres américains en France, 1865–1915 (Lasting Impressions: American Painters in France, 1865–1915), Musée d'Art Américain Giverny, France (organizer). Venues: Musée d'Art Américain Giverny, France, June 1–November 1, 1992; April 1–October 31, 1993; April 1–October 30, 1994; April 1–October 31, 1995. [exh. cat.]

American Artists and the Paris Experience, 1880–1910, Terra Museum of American Art, Chicago, Illinois (organizer). Venue: Terra Museum of American Art, Chicago, Illinois, November 22, 1997–March 8, 1998.

Giverny: une impression américaine (Giverny, An American Impression), Musée d'Art Américain Giverny, France (organizer). Venue: Musée d'Art Américain Giverny, France, April 1–November 1, 1998.

Ville et campagne: les artistes américains, 1870–1920 (The City and the Country: American Perspectives, 1870–1920), Musée d'Art Américain Giverny, France (organizer). Venue: Musée d'Art Américain Giverny, France, April 1–July 15, 1999. [exh. cat.]

Giverny: intérieurs, extérieurs (Giverny: Inside and Out), Musée d'Art Américain Giverny, France (organizer). Venue: Musée d'Art Américain Giverny, France, April 1–October 31, 2000.

Giverny au fil des saisons (Giverny in All Seasons), Musée d'Art Américain Giverny, France (organizer). Venue: Musée d'Art Américain, Giverny France, April 1–November 30, 2001.

D'une colonie à une collection: le Musée d'Art Américain Giverny fête ses dix ans (From a Colony to a Collection: Celebrating the Tenth Anniversary of the Musée d'Art Américain Giverny), Musée d'Art Américain Giverny, France (organizer). Venue: Musée d'Art Américain Giverny, France, March 30–June 16, 2002 (on exhibit extended run: March 30–September 13, 2002).

A Place on the Avenue: Terra Museum of American Art Celebrates 15 Years in Chicago, Terra Museum of American Art, Chicago, Illinois (organizer). Venue: Terra Museum of American Art, Chicago, Illinois, November 16, 2002–February 16, 2003.

En Plein Air: American Painters in Giverny, Terra Museum of American Art, Chicago, Illinois (organizer). Venue: Terra Museum of American Art, Chicago, Illinois, March 8–May 25, 2003.

Un Américain chez les Nabis: Thomas Buford Meteyard (An American Among the Nabis: Thomas Buford Meteyard), Musée d'Art Américain Giverny, France (organizer). Venue: Musée d'Art Américain Giverny, France, July 11–October 31, 2004. [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.]

John Leslie Breck: American Impressionist, Mint Museum, Charlotte, North Carolina (organizer); Venues: Mint Museum Uptown: September 18, 2021 – January 2, 2022; Dixon Gallery and Gardens, Memphis, Tennessee: January 22 – March 27, 2022; Figge Museum of American Art, Davenport, Iowa: May 28 – August 28, 2022. [exh. cat.]

  

Kilmer, Nicholas. Thomas Buford Meteyard (1865–1928): Paintings and Watercolors. (exh. cat., Berry-Hill Galleries, Inc.). New York: Berry-Hill Galleries, Inc., 1989. Cat. no. 8, p. 53 (color).

Gerdts, William H. et al. Lasting Impressions: American Painters in France, 1865–1915. (exh. cat., Musée d'Art Américain Giverny). Chicago, Illinois: Terra Foundation for the Arts, 1992. Text p. 176; pl. 28, p. 177 (color).

Gerdts, William H. et al. Impressions de toujours: les peintres américains en France, 1865–1915. (exh. cat., Musée d'Art Américain Giverny). Chicago, Illinois: Terra Foundation for the Arts, 1992. Text p. 176; pl. 28, p. 177 (color).

Gerdts, William H. Monet's Giverny: An Impressionist Colony. New York: Abbeville Press, 1993. Pl. 82, p. 90 (color).

Gomes, Rosalie. Impressions of Giverny: A Painter's Paradise 1883–1914. San Francisco, California: Pomegranate Artbooks, 1995. Text pp. 44, 113; pl. 28, p. 43 (color).

Bourguignon, Katherine M. and Elizabeth Kennedy. An American Point of View: The Daniel J. Terra Collection. Chicago, Illinois: Terra Foundation for the Arts, 2002. Text pp. 114, 201; ill. pp. 14 (color), 115 (color), 201 (black & white).

Bourguignon, Katherine M. and Elizabeth Kennedy. Un regard transatlantique. La collection d'art américain de Daniel J. Terra. Chicago, Illinois: Terra Foundation for the Arts, 2002. Text pp. 114, 201; ill. pp. 14 (color), 115 (color), 201 (black & white).

Finlay, Nancy, Bronwyn Griffith, and Nicholas Kilmer. Thomas Buford Meteyard. Un Américain chez les Nabis. (exh. cat., Musée d'Art Américain Giverny). Chicago, Illinois: Terra Foundation for the Arts, 2004. Text pp. 11, 26 (French), 63, 69 (English); ill. p. 17 (color), fig. 7, p. 27 (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 pp. 61, 209 (checklist); cat. p. 118 (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. 54, pp. 102 (in Japanese), 186 (in English); ill. 102 (color).