THEODORE ROBINSON 1852-1896
Watching the Cows, 1892
Oil on canvas, 16 X 26" (40.64 x 66.04 cm.)
Signed, lower left
Museum purchase, 961-0-132

Like many of his fellow American artists, Theodore Robinson received his early training in the United States; first, briefly at the Chicago School of Design and later at the National Academy of Design in New York, prior to his first trip abroad in 1876. During this sojourn, he studied with Carolus-Duran, Jean-Leon Gereme, and probably Benjamin -Constant. He also painted at the villages of Barbizon and Grez near the Fontainebleau Forest. Returning to New York three years later, he taught painting and worked on mural decorations for the noted nineteenth-century muralists John La Farge and Prentice Treadwell. It seems likely that his interest in the figure, which would prevail throughout his career, was reinforced at this time. In 1884, he departed once again for France, which would become the focus of his creative energies for nearly a decade and nurture his evolving Impressionist style. The Guest Register for the Hotel Bandy in Giverny records Robinson's arrival in September, 1887, as one of the first visitors. The small village, nestled in the Seine Valley halfway between Paris and Rouen, was most attractive to him and he quietly took his place, befriending many of the local inhabitants whom he often employed as models. It was his custom to spend extended summers at Giverny, arriving in April or May and remaining well into the autumn.
A recurring theme in Robinson's production during his Giverny period is the young peasant woman, head bowed, absorbed in her sewing as she tends COWS. That the artist was often attracted to this simple, common activity is apparent through a notation in his diary for October 23, 1892: "Cold, gray day-walked p.m. to the Seine-returning, the Durdants-mere and two girls sewing seated, their 14 cows feeding .... " In Watching the Cows, the model is seated in a lush green pasture on a tranquil summer day. At her side is a small child who wears an elaborate bonnet and looks intently at the viewer. Behind, two tethered cows graze quietly. Patches of sunlight add luminosity to the canvas and lead the eye back to a clearing in the foliage at the edge of the meadow. The pronounced horizontal composition and the use of multiple figures are somewhat unusual for the artist, who tended to focus on a single model in both interior and exterior settings.
As Robinson's last stay at Giverny drew to a close, his contacts with Claude Monet increased, the two visiting each other's studios on a number of occasions. On November 29, 1892, he wrote in his diary, presumably referring to Watching the Cows: "Call from Monet & family after breakfast ... he liked the 'cows and Baby[sic]." Several weeks later, following his return to New York, he mentioned the painting again: "The 'Mill' was done in a good spirit of endeavor and ... also the 'Baby and Cows' but how foolishly I let time pass and did not get more time on both figures and baby."
In his remaining years, the artist would search for a sympathetic locale in which to apply his fully developed Impressionist Style. During the summer of 1893, he painted a series of landscapes at Napanoch, New York, and the following spring, produced a small group of exquisite works at Cos Cob on the Connecticut shore. He spent his last summer in Vermont, the place of his birth, rejoicing that he had finally "found a country in America that charms as much ... as certain parts of France." His hope to paint there, however, went unfulfilled. In April, 1896, Robinson died of chronic asthma in New York at the age of forty-three. Prior to his early death, Robinson, often called America's first Impressionist, successfully achieved a balance in his art between the American realist tradition which had always been present and the Impressionist concern for the elements of light and atmosphere.

SONA JOHNSTON