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  • Winter Landscape

  • n.d.
  • Theodore Butler (American 1861-1936)
  • Oil on canvas
  • 33.0 x 40.9 cm., 13 x 16-1/8"
  • Gift of Mr. and Mrs. Michael Moss through Catherine Carter Goebel, Paul A. Anderson Chair in the Arts, Paul A. Anderson Art History Collection, Augustana College

Essay by Kate Felde, Class of 2006 and Catherine Carter Goebel, Editor

The American Impressionist, Theodore Earl Butler (1861-1936) painted this beautiful Winter Landscape. The town is viewed from above, the typical bird's-eye perspective preferred by Impressionists. There seems to be a distinct foreground and background, but very little middle ground, evidence of the abstract influence of Japanese woodblock prints that were currently being imported.

The piece evokes a sense of quiet, reinforced by the winter whites and soft tonality, which could be disrupted at any moment. Winter scenes were popular with the Impressionists because they offered opportunities to contrast clear and diffused light, an atmospheric challenge these artists embraced. They also effectively reduced forms to simplified shapes that worked well with the Impressionists' quick and loose brushstrokes. The atmospheric perspective, achieved through the beautiful background tones of blue and purple, produce an illusion of depth and ambience. One of Butler's goals was to capture the essence of the place, which he achieved in this painting. Like most Impressionists, Butler painted en plein air, meaning outdoors, in front of the subject, rather than in the studio. This was now possible due to the invention of portable oil paints. Such painting better enabled artists to capture the immediacy of a certain time and place.

Winter Scene is most likely one of Butler's earlier Impressionist paintings, painted between 1888 and 1889. Butler's talent and painting were often overlooked in favor of the more famous Impressionists of his era, such as Claude Monet and Mary Cassatt. He ventured to Giverny, a small village about forty-five miles northwest of Paris along the Seine River. Here he worked under the influence of Monet. As this painting demonstrates, he was an innovative artist of his time and a sensitive practitioner of the beautiful naturalism of Impressionism. He was the only early American Impressionist in Giverny who remained there throughout his career. In this position, he became an important "conduit for Americans in Giverny" (Gerdts 75) and thus facilitated the spread of Impressionism to America.