(American, 1861-1936)

Church, Giverny, 1896, signed lower right  "T.E. Butler '96", oil on canvas, 
23 ½ x 29 in.; fine ornate carved gilt wood frame, 34 x 39 in.

Provenance: (possibly) Cavalier Gallery, Greenwich, Connecticut (label verso, n.,d.); Hollis Taggart Galleries, New York (label verso); Private Collection, New Jersey, acquired directly from the above, 2005

Note: This painting is included in Patrick Bertrand’s catalogue raisonne of the artist’s work.

The current example shows the Sainte-Radegonde Catholic Church in Giverny. Originally constructed in the 11th century and rebuilt in the 16th century, it sits on a hillside and was a popular subject for the American Impressionists, including Theodore Robinson (Old Church at
Giverny, 1891, Smithsonian American Art Museum), Theodore Wendel (Flowering Fields, Giverny, 1889, Terra Foundation for American Art), and Dawson Dawson-Watson (Giverny: Road Looking West toward Church, circa 1890, Terra Foundation for American Art), as well as
Butler. He and Suzanne Hoschedé were married at the Church, as commemorated in Robinson’s The Wedding March (1892, Terra Foundation for American Art). Claude Monet is buried in its
graveyard.
In Church, Giverny, the lush landscape and sky are awash in bright sunlight while the painterly and engaging impasto distributed across the paint surface demonstrates Butler’s enormous admiration for Monet’s Impressionist technique. The reverse bears the stamp of Parisian canvas
maker Paul Foinet, whose canvases were sold at the Ancien Hotel Baudy, a small guest house and café in Giverny frequented by many artists.