Theodore Earl Butler

Theodore Earl Butler was a pioneer of American Impressionism and among the first generation of American artists working in France in the late 19th century. He was a link between the French artists and American expatriate artists in Giverny.

Theodore Earl Butler was born in Columbus, Ohio in 1861. His father, Courtland Philip Livingston Butler, was an influential businessman. His mother was Elizabeth Slade Pierce.

Butler graduated from Marietta College in Ohio in 1882, went on to study at the Art Students League under William Merritt Chase from 1884 to 1886 and then moved to study in Paris.

He studied La Grande-Chaumière, Académie Colarossi and at Académie Julian in Paris. One of his teachers, Emile Carolus Duran, introduced him to the work of Claude Monet.

Monet had moved to Giverny, in the North of France in 1883. Butler visited Giverny, where other American artists lived and worked. Butler was invited to Monet’s home for dinner. Butler not only became a friend of Monet’s, he also became his son-in-law. Buttler married Monet's stepdaughter, Suzanne Hoschedé (one of Monet’s favorite models) in 1892. 

The couple had two children, a son and a daughter, inspiring Butler to paint family portraits in addition to the landscapes he had been painting.

Suzanne died in 1899, after a long illness and Butler traveled to New York, where he had several solo exhibitions. 

He remained in New York for six months, and returned to Giverny, where married Marthe Hoschede, Suzanne's sister.

The family moved to New York in 1914, where he was commissioned to paint murals for the mansion of Cornelius Vanderbilt III at 640 Fifth Avenue and Solomon R. Guggenheim's summer mansion in Long Branch, New Jersey. His work was part of the 1913 Armory Show. Butler and his friend, painter John Sloan, founded the the Society of Independent Artists.

The breakout of World War l prevented Butler from returning to Giverny until 1921, where he continued to paint until his death on May 2, 1936. He was buried in the village cemetery adjacent to the Monet family.

Butler’s son, James, became a painter…one of the few to paint in Monet’s garden in Giverny. Butler’s sister, Mary Elizabeth Sheldon, née Butler (1849–1897), was the paternal great grandmother of U.S. President George H. W. Bush and the great-great grandmother of U.S. President George W. Bush.

The works of Theodore Earl Butler can be found at the Smithsonian, The Met and other distinguished venues around the world.