East River by Theodore Earl Butler

Theodore Earl Butler
1861-1936 | American

East River

Signed and dated "T.E. Butler 00" (lower left)
Oil on canvas

Theodore Earl Butler was a leading figure of the American Impressionist movement, and this oil on canvas is a highly important example within his oeuvre. The work represents the artist's lifelong experimentation with atmosphere and color, revealing Butler's impressionist technique that was greatly influenced by his father-in-law Claude Monet. Entitled East River, this rousing oil painting recalls Monet's famed hazy views of the River Thames in London. Almost certainly painted en plein air, the work embodies the informality and spontaneity of the Impressionist approach, which sought to capture the fleeting atmosphere of a moment in a single composition.

At the time of this work’s creation, Butler had recently returned to New York after spending many years living in France. Abroad, he had enjoyed success painting depictions of tranquil gardens and countryside, but his return to the U.S. marked a shift in his attention from rural subjects to urban ones. This mirrored a shift among young American artists of the day away from capturing the sublime in nature, to embracing it in the new manmade marvels that surrounded them. Here, Butler combines his depiction of the waterway with the rapidly changing city in the background, placing an emphasis on the changing use of land and sea and embracing the sublime in this landscape. His highly dynamic palette of pinks, blues and purples fits firmly within the artistic tradition of the French Impressionists, while also revealing the artist's own distinctive modernity.

Born in Ohio in 1861, Theodore Earl Butler spent most of his life and career living abroad in France. He studied briefly under William Merritt Chase at the Art Student's League in New York before traveling to Paris in the 1880s. Once there, he entered the famed Académie Colarossi and Académie Julian, and won his first honorable mention at the Paris Salon in 1888. This particular painting was exhibited in the second annual exhibition of the Society of Independent Artists, an association of avant-garde American artists.

That same year, Butler traveled to Giverny, where he became an intimate friend of Claude Monet. He became so close to the family that he eventually married the famed French Impressionist’s stepdaughter, Suzanne Hoschedé. Though relatively unknown early in his career, by the turn of the century, Butler was among the most celebrated American artists working in France. He had several one-man shows in New York City, including a 1900 exhibition at the famed Paul Durand-Ruel Gallery. In 1913, he contributed two works to the Armory Show in New York and became a founding member of the Society of Independent Artists in 1916. Today, the artist's works can be found in important collections around the world, including the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, the Musée des Impressionnismes in Giverny, the Carnegie Museum of Art in Pittsburgh and the Birmingham Museum of Art.

This painting will be included in Patrick Bertrand's forthcoming catalogue raisonné of the work of Theodore Earl Butler.

Dated 1900

Canvas: 29 1/2" high x 40" wide
Frame: 41 1/8" high x 51 1/8" wide x 4" deep

Provenance:
Estate of the artist
Private Collection of James Butler, son of the artist
Spanierman Galleries, New York
R.H. Love Galleries, Chicago
Private Collection
M.S. Rau, New Orleans

Exhibited:
New York, Durand-Ruel Gallery, March 1900, by repute
San Francisco, Maxwell Galleries, Theodore Butler: American Impressionist, June 16 - July 17, 1972, no. 734, illus.
Chicago, R.H. Love Galleries, Theodore E. Butler: Emergence from Monet's Shadow, 1984 - 1986; 1996 (and traveling), pl. 46, pp. 211; 428, illus.
Chicago, R.H. Love Galleries, Theodore E. Butler: An American Impressionist, December 16, 2000 - January 31, 2001

Literature:
"Art and Artists Pass in Review; Annual Exhibition of Independents-Millets for Boston-Notable Auction Sales in New York," The Philadelphia Inquirer, April 28, 1918, vol. 178, no. 118, p. 10.
R.H. Love, Theodore Earl Butler: Emergence from Monet's Shadow, Chicago, 1985, pp. 385, 387.