18 Facts About Theodore Robinson

Theodore Robinson was an American painter best known for his Impressionist landscapes.

Theodore Robinson was one of the first American artists to take up Impressionism in the late 1880s, visiting Giverny and developing a close friendship with Claude Monet.

Theodore Robinson's family moved to Evansville, Wisconsin, and Robinson briefly studied art in Chicago.

Theodore Robinson first exhibited his paintings at the 1877 Salon in Paris, and spent the summer of that year at Grez-sur-Loing.

In 1884 Theodore Robinson returned to France where he lived for the next eight years, visiting America only occasionally.

Theodore Robinson gravitated to Giverny, which had become a center of French impressionist art under the influence of Claude Monet.

Historians are unclear when Theodore Robinson met Monet, but by 1888 their friendship was enough for Theodore Robinson to move in next door to the famous impressionist.

Theodore Robinson's art shifted to a more traditional impressionistic manner during this time, likely due to Monet's influence.

At Giverny, Theodore Robinson painted what art historians regard as some of his finest works.

Theodore Robinson left France and Monet for the final time in 1892, although he meant to return.

Back in America, Theodore Robinson obtained a teaching post with the Brooklyn Art School and conducted summer classes in Napanoch, New York, near the Catskill Mountains, where he painted several canal scenes.

Theodore Robinson taught at Evelyn College in Princeton, New Jersey, and later at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts in Philadelphia.

Theodore Robinson was particularly close to John Henry Twachtman and Julian Alden Weir, and spent time at the nearby Cos Cob Art Colony in Connecticut.

Theodore Robinson harbored doubts about the quality of his work.

Theodore Robinson wrote an essay on the Barbizon painter Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot and, because of his friendship with the French Impressionist, he wrote and illustrated the essay on Claude Monet.

In 1895, Theodore Robinson enjoyed a productive period in Vermont, and in February 1896 he wrote to Monet about returning to Giverny, but in April he died of an acute asthma attack in New York City.

Theodore Robinson was buried in his hometown of Evansville, Wisconsin.

Today Theodore 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, Washington, DC; and the Art Institute of Chicago.