Theodore Robinson Original Antique American Impressionism Pastoral Landscape Sheep 19th Century Oil Painting
Beautiful and rare, original antique late 19th-century pastoral landscape with sheep, by early American impressionist, Theodore Robinson, (1852-1896). The painting is a beautiful layering of impressionism and light effects and is all original. It is estimated to have been created in 1887/1888. The painting is signed in the lower left corner.
Theodore Robinson (June 3, 1852 – April 2, 1896) was an American painter renowned for his Impressionist landscapes. As one of the first American artists to embrace Impressionism in the late 1880s, he developed a close friendship with Claude Monet during his visits to Giverny. Many of his works are considered masterpieces of American Impressionism.
Training and Early Career
Robinson was born in Irasburg, Vermont, and later moved with his family to Evansville, Wisconsin. He briefly studied art in Chicago before moving to New York City in 1874 to attend classes at the National Academy of Design and the Art Students League.
In 1876, Robinson traveled to Paris to study under Carolus-Duran and at the École des Beaux-Arts with Jean-Léon Gérôme. He first exhibited his paintings at the 1877 Salon in Paris and spent that summer at Grez-sur-Loing. After trips to Venice and Bologna, he returned to the United States in 1879. By 1881, he had moved into a studio in New York, becoming a professional painter and art teacher. During this period, Robinson painted in a realist manner, often depicting people in quiet domestic or agrarian scenes.
Giverny
In 1884, Robinson returned to France, where he lived for the next eight years, visiting America only occasionally. He gravitated to Giverny, which had become a center of French Impressionist art under Claude Monet's influence. Robinson and Monet developed a close friendship, with Monet offering advice and Robinson providing feedback on Monet's works in progress.
Robinson's art shifted to a more traditional impressionistic style during this time. At Giverny, he painted some of his finest works, depicting the countryside in various weather conditions and often featuring women in leisurely poses. His painting Winter Landscape won the 1890 Webb Prize, and his La Débâcle (1892) is part of the collection at Scripps College in Claremont, California.
Return to America
Robinson left France for the final time in 1892. Back in America, he taught at the Brooklyn Art School, conducted summer classes in Napanoch, New York, and taught at Evelyn College in Princeton, New Jersey, and the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts in Philadelphia.
In New York, Robinson was part of a growing number of American artists pursuing Impressionism. He was particularly close to John Henry Twachtman and Julian Alden Weir and spent time at the Cos Cob Art Colony in Connecticut, where he painted a series of boat scenes at the Riverside Yacht Club.
Final Years
In the last year of his life, Robinson contributed essays to Modern French Masters, edited by John Charles Van Dyke, writing about Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot and Claude Monet. In 1895, he had a productive period in Vermont and wrote to Monet about returning to Giverny, but in April 1896, he died of an acute asthma attack in New York City at the age of 43. He was buried in his hometown of Evansville, Wisconsin.
Today, Robinson's paintings are in the collections of many major museums, including the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City, the Corcoran Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C., and the Art Institute of Chicago.
The oil painting measures 24" X 18", plus the frame. In the antique American frame, the painting measures approximately 20.5" X 26.5". The painting is in original condition with no indication of previous overpaints. The painting has darkened with age; (the lighter colors are more evident under a bright flash). The canvas has loosened on the canvas stretcher boards; (it is recommended that the restorer lay the painting flat and seal onto a board to remove the light waving). The painting is signed in the lower left corner in red.
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