Père Trognon and His Daughter at the Bridge

Painted between 1887 and 1892, when Theodore Robinson spent up to eight months each year in the village of Giverny, in Normandy, France, Père Trognon and His Daughter at the Bridge highlights the artist’s interest in picturing the rural village’s inhabitants in specific local settings. The painting shows Trognon (probably Alexandre Trognon, listed in the 1891 census of the village) watering the white horse on which he is mounted; his daughter, who often posed for Robinson, looks down from the nearby bridge. Robinson painted the arched stone bridge over this narrow stream in Giverny in several paintings, including The Watering Place (1891; Baltimore Museum of Art), a closely related work that shows only the man and horse. Robinson may have worked on these paintings from a photograph that he made of the bridge, perhaps one titled Women by the Water (TF C1985.1.8).  In Père Trognon and His Daughter at the Bridge Robinson emphasizes the rigid, sloping line of the slender iron handrail, which lends structure to the composition and ties the two figures together as it echoes Josephine’s gaze toward her father. Yet Trognon’s shaded, averted face reinforces the suggestion of an informal photograph of a momentary scene, an impression furthered by the blurring effect of Robinson’s broken brushwork and the composition’s cropped forms and high horizon.

Robinson’s depiction of villagers distinguishes his work in Giverny from that of most of the first group of international artists to paint there, and from the work of the village’s most famous resident, impressionist painter Claude Monet (1840–1926), who was Robinson’s friend and mentor. Robinson’s use of such individuals as Trognon and his daughter as models, pictured engaged in everyday activities, underscores his embrace of impressionism as a celebration of fleeting, contemporary, everyday experience. For all the sketchy, rapid brushwork with which Robinson delineated them, however, these figures, particularly the woman in her peasant garb, serve to authenticate the old-world setting that drew late nineteenth-century American artists to rural locales such as Giverny.

The Figural Images of Theodore Robinson, American Impressionist, Paine Art Center and Arboretum, Oshkosh, Wisconsin (organizer). Venues: Paine Art Center and Arboretum, Oshkosh, Wisconsin, April 12–June 7, 1987; The Dixon Gallery and Gardens, Memphis, Tennessee, June 28–September 6, 1987; Indianapolis Museum of Art, Indianapolis, Indiana, October 6–November 29, 1987. [exh. cat.]

American Painters in France, 1830–1930, Terra Museum of American Art, Chicago, Illinois (organizer). Venue: Terra Museum of American Art, Chicago, Illinois, June 14–September 3, 1989. [exh. cat.]

From Camera to Canvas: Theodore Robinson's French Photographs and Paintings, Terra Museum of American Art, Chicago, Illinois (organizer). Venue: Terra Museum of American Art, Chicago, Illinois, April 24–July 1, 1990.

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). Venue: 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.]

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.

Rivières et rivages: les artistes américains, 1850–1900 (Waves and Waterways: American Perspectives, 1850–1900), Musée d'Art Américain Giverny, France (organizer). Venue: Musée d'Art Américain Giverny, France, April 1–October 31, 2000. [exh. cat.]

The French Experience: American Artists at Giverny, Terra Museum of American Art, Chicago, Illinois (organizer). Venue: Terra Museum of American Art, Chicago, Illinois, July 27–October 20, 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.

Copley to Cassatt: Masterworks from the Terra Collection, New Britain Museum of American Art, New Britain, Connecticut and Terra Museum of American Art, Chicago, Illinois (organizer). Venue: New Britain Museum of American Art, New Britain, Connecticut, September 5–December 7, 2003.

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.]

Expanded Galleries of American Art with Loans from the Terra Foundation for American Art Collection, The Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois, April 15, 2005–March 2007.

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.

Galleries of American Art with Loans from the Terra Foundation for American Art Collection, The Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois, July 2009–September 2010.

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.]

Monet and American Impressionism, Samuel P. Harn Museum of Art, Gainesville, Florida in partnership with Telfair Museums, Savannah, Georgia and Hunter Museum of American Art, Chattanooga, Tennessee (organizers). Venues: Samuel P. Harn Museum of Art, Gainesville, Florida, February 3–May 24, 2015; Hunter Museum of American Art, Chattanooga, Tennessee, June 27–September 20, 2015; Telfair Museum's Jepson Center for the Arts, Savannah, Georgia, October 16, 2015–January 24, 2016. [exh. cat.]

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Harrington, Bev, ed. The Figural Images of Theodore Robinson, American Impressionist. (exh. cat., Paine Art Center and Arboretum). Oshkosh, Wisconsin: Paine Art Center and Arboretum, 1987. Text p. 34; ill. cover (color), cat. 32, p. 76 (black & white).

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 pp. 53, 134; pl. 5, p. 137 (color).

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Cartwright, Derrick R. Rivières et rivages: les artistes américains, 1850–1900. (exh. cat., Musée d'Art Américain Giverny). Chicago, Illinois: Terra Foundation for the Arts, 2000. Text p. 28 (checklist); ill. p. 44 (color).

Johnston, Sona. In Monet's Light: Theodore Robinson at Giverny. (exh. cat., The Baltimore Museum of Art). Baltimore, Maryland: The Baltimore Museum of Art, 2004. Text pp. 124, 126; fig. 1, ill. p. 126 (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. 210 (checklist); cat. p. 120 (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. 56, pp. 104 (in Japanese), 186 (in English); ill. p. 105 (color).

Román, Dulce M. Monet and American Impressionism. (exh. cat. Samuel P. Harn Museum of Art, University of Florida, Gainesville). Gainesville, Florida: University of Florida, 2015. Ill. p. 110 (color).