$32,500
Estimate: $12,000 - $18,000
American Art & Pennsylvania Impressionists
Auction: December 8, 2019 2:00:00 PM EDT
Signed 'T.E. Butler' bottom right, oil on canvas
23 1/2 x 29 in. (59.7 x 73.7cm)
Provenance: (Possibly) Charles E. Slatkin, Inc. Galleries, New York, New York.
Private Collection, New York.
NOTE:
The son of a prominent businessman, Columbus-born Theodore Earl Butler attended the Art Students League of New York after college, studying under William Merritt Chase. While there, he became a close friend of the Impressionist painters Theodore Robinson and his fellow student at the League, Philip Leslie Hale, with whom he set off for Paris in late 1886. There, Butler studied at the academies Julian and Colarossi and quickly received recognition from the Paris salon, garnering an honorable mention in 1888 for his painting La Veuve. That same year, Butler visited Giverny for the first time. He eventually settled in the quiet village in 1892, thus becoming an integral part of a vital art community. While at Giverny, Butler was increasingly influenced by Claude Monet, and learned how to capture the transient beauty and changing effects of light on the French countryside, as exemplified in the present works (Lots 30-32). In 1892, Butler eventually married Suzanne Hoschedé, Monet's stepdaughter, and therefore officially integrated into the Monet family despite the older artist's initial objections.