Further Images
| Medium | Oil on canvas |
| Signed | Signed & dated lower left |
| Size | 26.00" × 21.50" (66.0cm × 54.6cm) |
| Framed Size | 35.00" × 30.50" (88.9cm × 77.5cm) |
| Dated | 1901 |
| Condition | Very good condition |
| Provenance | This painting will be included in Patrick Bertrand's forthcoming catalogue raisonné of the work of Theodore Earl Butler |
| Literature | A tender domestic interior by the American Impressionist Theodore Earl Butler, depicting Marthe Hoschedé — stepdaughter of Claude Monet and the artist's wife — seated quietly at her needlework in the living room of Monet's house at Giverny. Bathed in soft, diffused light, the scene is built from loose, broken strokes and a delicate palette of mauve, rose and cool green, the figure's lilac skirt anchoring a composition alive with shimmering colour and warm intimacy. Butler occupied a singular position in art history: one of the very few Americans admitted to Monet's inner circle at Giverny, he married two of Monet's stepdaughters in turn — Suzanne, and after her death her sister Marthe. Though he absorbed the Impressionist lessons of his celebrated father-in-law, Butler forged an independent, distinctly modern sensibility, his decorative interiors recalling the intimate domestic worlds of Vuillard and Bonnard. Works such as this, uniting Butler's gift for luminous colour with his privileged access to the Monet household, are among the most personal and art-historically resonant of the American Giverny school — a quiet, glowing record of family life at the very heart of Impressionism. |
P.O.A
