Robert William Vonnoh studied at the Massachusetts Normal Art Club in Boston and, from 1880 onward, in Paris with Gustave Boulanger and Jules Lefebvre at the Académie Julian. He returned to Boston in 1883, began teaching at the Museum of Fine Arts School in Boston in 1885, and at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Philadelphia, in 1891. In 1887, he began visiting Grèz-sur-Loing (France) frequently, sometimes for prolonged periods. Vonnoh painted flower beds, figures and landscapes with a highly colourful palette. He emphasized Impressionism in his teaching, and Robert Henri and William Glackens were among his students.

Vonnoh exhibited at the Paris Salon, and was awarded an honourable mention in 1889. He became an associate of the National Academy of Design in 1900, and a member in 1906. He also belonged to the key artistic groups in New York. He won bronze medals at the Exposition Universelles of 1889 and 1900, a medal in Buffalo in 1901, a medal in Charleston in 1902, and the Thomas R. Proctor Prize at the National Academy of Design in 1904.

Several of his works are in public buildings, for example: Companion of the Studio, Self-portrait and November at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts; Portrait of Dr S. Weir Mitchell at the College of Physicians of Philadelphia; John G. Milburn at the Buffalo Club, Buffalo; The Honourable John Russell Young at the Union League Club, Philadelphia; Attorney Gal Griggs at the Department of Justice, Washington; and Charles Emory Smith, Postmaster General at the Post Office Department in Washington.

A retrospective exhibit of his works was displayed at Madron Gallery in Chicago and The Butler Institute, March 1 to April 9, 2010 and May 2 to June 27, 2010, respectively. The show included photographs of the artists' colony in Grez-sur-Loing along with accompanying images of the artist as well as a bronze relief made by his wife Bessie Potter Vonnoh.

Group Exhibitions

1992, Lasting Impressions: American Painters in France 1865-1915, Musée d'Art Américain, Giverny
2002, American Impressionism 1880-1915 (L'Impressionnisme Américain 1880-1915), Fondation de l'Hermitage, Lausanne
2006, Americans in Paris 1860-1900, National Gallery, London (also presented at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, and the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York)

Museum and Gallery Holdings

Brooklyn, NY: Portrait of the Artist's Wife
Chicago (Terra Foundation for American Art Collection): La Sieste, The Rest (1887, oil on panel); Poppies in France (1888, oil on canvas); Jardin de paysanne (Peasant Garden) (1890)
Indianapolis (MA): Poppies (1888, oil on canvas)
New York (Metropolitan Mus. of Art): The Bridge at Grez (c. 1907-1911, oil on canvas); La Mere Adele (Cordon Bleu) (c. 1911, oil on canvas)
Old Lyme (Florence Griswold Mus.): Portrait of John Severinus Conway (1883, oil on canvas)
Philadelphia (Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts Gal.): November (1890, oil on canvas); Self-portrait
Washington DC: President Wilson's Family
Worcester, MA (AM): Portrait of Milton T. Carter (1884)
Youngstown (Butler Institute of American Art): In Flanders Field-Where Soldiers Sleep and Poppies Grow (1890, oil on canvas)