Theodore Earl Butler (American, 1861-1936) Le Train à Giverny Signed and dated 'T.E. Butler 04' bottom left, oil on canvas 23 5/8 x 28 3/4 in. (60 x 73cm) PROVENANCE: The Artist. Suzanne Hoschedé, the Artist's wife. By descent in the Hoschedé-Monet family. Private Collection, France (since 1954). Hôtel des ventes de Monte-Carlo, sale of July 26, 2014, lot 89. Acquired directly from the above sale. Private Collection, New York, New York. NOTE: The son of a prominent businessman, Columbus-born Theodore Earl Butler attended the Art Students League of New York after college, studying under William Merritt Chase (1849-1916). While there, he became a close friend of the Impressionist painters Theodore Robinson (1852-1896) and his fellow student at the League, Philip Leslie Hale (1865-1931), with whom he set off for Paris in late 1886. In France, Butler studied at the académies Julian and Colarossi and quickly received recognition from the Paris Salon, garnering an honorable mention in 1888 for his painting La Veuve. That same year, Butler visited Giverny for the first time. He eventually settled in the quiet village in 1892, thus becoming an integral part of the art community. While at Giverny, Butler was increasingly influenced by Claude Monet (1840-1926), and learned how to capture the transient beauty and changing effects of light on the French countryside, as exemplified in the present works (lots 17-19) and specifically in Le Train à Giverny. Here, Butler further explores Monet's legacy by picking a modern theme the French master had already fully explored in his Gare Saint-Lazare series from 1877. Butler made several versions of the regional train connecting Vernon to Giverny. Executed en plein-air, the work successfully captures the effects of both speed and blurriness created by the passage of train. By choosing similar hues of brown, grey and purple, the train appears to morph into the landscape, mixing in with the surrounding trees, sky and smoke. In a letter from 1904 addressed to his friend Philip Leslie Hale, Butler described his train series of paintings: "Now I have painted trains at eight hours as well as the train at ten hours, as well as the trains at fifteen and sixteen hours. In fact I have become the king of the track." See More