Theodore Robinson (1852-1896)
Autumn Sunlight (In the Woods), 1888
Oil on canvas, 18 1/8 x 21 3/4”
Signed and dated lower right

Robinson, a Vermont native, painted this scene in France, perhaps at Giverny, where he was a friend of Claude Monet. The woman recalls the peasants of Barbizon art but confronts us as they do not. Women who appear to blend with a natural setting are seen often in American Impressionism. In Cos Cob, Robinson would instead paint some strikingly modern shoreline scenes.

He and his friends J. Alden Weir and John Twachtman introduced their students to Monet’s theories. Once it was taught in the art schools, Impressionism spread rapidly across America in a variant that remained mindful of native traditions and motifs.