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Theodore Robinson
1852–1896
BirthplaceIrasburg, Vermont, United States of America
Death placeNew York, New York, United States of America
BiographyTheodore Robinson was one of the most significant members of the first generation of American painters to work in the manner known as impressionism, characterized by vigorous, tactile brushstrokes of bright, pure color and informal, contemporary subject matter. Robinson was born in Vermont and grew up in Wisconsin. After brief studies at Chicago’s Academy of Design (later the Art Institute of Chicago), he attended the National Academy of Design in New York. In 1875, Robinson traveled to Paris to study at the prestigious École des Beaux-Arts and in the studios of French academic painters. On his return to the United States four years later, Robinson worked in New York and Boston as a decorative painter and art instructor; he also traveled throughout the northeast painting local life and landscape.
Robinson returned to France in 1884. Focusing on landscape, he worked in several rural locales before taking up residence, between 1887 and 1892, in Giverny, a village ninety kilometers northwest of Paris that would nurture numerous international artists, often working in an impressionist manner. Giverny was the home of Claude Monet (1840–1926), one of the leaders of the French impressionist movement. The French master was generally aloof from Giverny’s growing colony of artists, but Robinson, who was somewhat older than many of them, became Monet’s close friend and colleague. Robinson developed his own impressionist style grounded in his academic training. In addition to geometrically structuring his compositions, he emphasized the figure in the landscape, thus highlighting the experience of everyday life over the purely optical effects typically emphasized by the French impressionists. Robinson became an adept photographer, often working from photographs of his models to avoid multiple posing sessions.
During his years in France, Robinson returned frequently to the United States, where his impressionist paintings brought considerable notice. Through his participation in exhibitions and his wide professional acquaintance, he encouraged the growing acceptance of impressionism among Americans in the early 1890s. In 1892, he left France and devoted himself to painting landscapes in the United States. He taught widely to support himself. He also worked in the impressionist art colony at Cos Cob, Connecticut, an important early center for American impressionist painting. Robinson further developed his individual use of color and local subject matter in the New England landscapes he produced in the last years of his career, which was cut short by his premature death from asthma at the age of forty-three.
Robinson returned to France in 1884. Focusing on landscape, he worked in several rural locales before taking up residence, between 1887 and 1892, in Giverny, a village ninety kilometers northwest of Paris that would nurture numerous international artists, often working in an impressionist manner. Giverny was the home of Claude Monet (1840–1926), one of the leaders of the French impressionist movement. The French master was generally aloof from Giverny’s growing colony of artists, but Robinson, who was somewhat older than many of them, became Monet’s close friend and colleague. Robinson developed his own impressionist style grounded in his academic training. In addition to geometrically structuring his compositions, he emphasized the figure in the landscape, thus highlighting the experience of everyday life over the purely optical effects typically emphasized by the French impressionists. Robinson became an adept photographer, often working from photographs of his models to avoid multiple posing sessions.
During his years in France, Robinson returned frequently to the United States, where his impressionist paintings brought considerable notice. Through his participation in exhibitions and his wide professional acquaintance, he encouraged the growing acceptance of impressionism among Americans in the early 1890s. In 1892, he left France and devoted himself to painting landscapes in the United States. He taught widely to support himself. He also worked in the impressionist art colony at Cos Cob, Connecticut, an important early center for American impressionist painting. Robinson further developed his individual use of color and local subject matter in the New England landscapes he produced in the last years of his career, which was cut short by his premature death from asthma at the age of forty-three.