Macbeth Gallery, New York, 1913
H.F. Field
Sale: Estate of Thomas R. Ball, New York and Francis White, Baltimore et al, American Art Association, New York, March 13-14, 1919, lot 132, illustrated (as Girl in a Hammock, Reading)
Holland Galleries
Sale: Hon. James Smith et al, American Art Association, New York, November 28, 1924, lot 42
M. Knoedler & Co., New York
Sale: Estate of F.W. Woolworth, Edwin Baldwin et al, American Art Association, New York, January 5, 1927, lot 146, illustrated (as Lady Reading)
David Roberts
Jerome Konheim, New York, 1946
Tessie Konheim, New York (by descent, as of 1960)
Doris Konheim Rubin and Harry Rubin, New York (by descent, as of 1982)
Private Collection, Rubin family member

New York, Society of American Artists, Catalogue of the 18th Exhibition 1896, March-May 1896, no. 213, p. 55
Brooklyn, New York, The Brooklyn Museum (The Brooklyn Institute of Arts and Sciences), Theodore Robinson 1852-1896, November 1946-January 1947, no. 46, p. 60, illustrated pl. XXXVI

John I.H. Baur, "Photographic Studies by an Impressionist," Gazette des Beaux-Arts, July-December 1946, no. 6, vol. XXX, fig. 16, p. 330, illustrated
William H. Gerdts, "West River Valley: Theodore Robinson, Vermont, and the Search for American Modernism," Theodore Robinson: West River Valley, Vermont, n.d., fol. 3r

 

The following condition report has been prepared by Lance Mayer and Gay Myers: The support is a plain-weave, medium-weight weight fabric, which is tacked to a five-member strainer having nailed corners. There is a grayish-white, commercially-applied ground. The oil-type paint was applied in a series of dabbing strokes, in Robinson's characteristic manner. There is no varnish layer. The painting remains unlined, and the tacking edges have been reinforced with thin pieces of fabric attached with Beva 371. The plane of the fabric is very good at this time. The paint is securely attached and is in excellent condition. There are no losses and there is no retouching. The surface is unvarnished, as is appropriate for one of Robinson's paintings. (An early biographer wrote that his paintings should never be varnished.) The surface is not completely matte, but has some variation of gloss from area to area, and has a softer look than Robinson paintings that have been varnished against the artist's wishes. The painting is in excellent condition.
In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective qualified opinion.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING CONDITION OF A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD "AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF SALE PRINTED IN THE CATALOGUE.

Theodore Robinson is best known as a pioneer of American Impressionism: his unique interpretation of the French movement established him as a major proponent of the style, both in the United States and abroad. Exposed to many diverse aesthetic influences over the course of his relatively short career, however, Robinson is most successful when he demonstrates his ability and willingness to synthesize select tenets of these divergent traditions onto a single canvas. Held privately since the 1940s and not seen publicly since 1946, Correspondence (also known as Girl Reading; Girl in Hammock, Reading; Girl Reading in Hammock; and Lady Reading) exemplifies this talent, and showcases the artist’s highly personal rendition of the impressionist aesthetic. Describing Robinson’s work in his landmark exhibition at the Brooklyn Museum, John I.H. Bauer wrote, “For the ultimate and lasting value of Robinson’s painting, quite aside from its pioneering role in American Impressionism, was a gentle, almost feminine lyricism, rooted in naturalism and achieved through color and an eye that was sensitive to the intimate poetry of nature and daily existence” (Theodore Robinson 1852-1896, Brooklyn, New York, 1946, p. 12).

Born in Irasburg, Vermont, Robinson began formal artistic training at eighteen, studying first at the Chicago Academy of Design and then at the National Academy of Design in New York City. Like most aspiring American painters of his day, he considered study abroad essential to his formation, so he traveled to Paris and worked in the atelier of Jean-Léon Gérôme at the École des Beaux-Arts, where he mastered the academic principles of careful draftsmanship, subtle tonality, and solꦿidity oဣf form.

Beginning in 1887, Robinson spent s🔯ummers at Giverny, the small farming village northwest of Paris where Claude Monet resided. Robinson began to experiment with Monet’s style and technique, animating canvases with loose and varied brushwork and emulating the Impressionist master’s practice of painting the same subjects outdoors at diffe🐠rent times of day to capture atmospheric effects.

Despite his admiration for Monet, Robinson resisted the mandate to abandon academic training wholesale, believing that the dramatic color contrasts and dissolution of fo🦹rm central to the Impressionist aesthetic left subjects “insufficiently rendered,” making them seem incomplete. To ground the approach, Robinson evolved a distinctive style characterized by subtle gradations of tone within clearly articulated compositional space.

In 1892, Robinson returned to the United States eager to apply less🐼ons honed abroad to the depiction of American cities and landscapes. Teaching during the academic year, he spent summer months exploring and sketching the countryside of the Mid-Atlantic states and New England.

The summer of 1895, spent in Townshend, Vermont, was a breakthrough period for Robinson and among the most productive in his career. Writer and critic Hamlin Garland visited Robinson in Vermont and recalled the artist saying, “All I have done up to this year's work has not been an emotional statement of myself; I have not felt my subjects. This year I got back among the hills I knew when a boy—I was born in Vermont—and I am just now beginning to paint subjects that touch me. [...] There is a mysterious quality in the landscapes of one's native place [...].” (Garland, “Theodore Robinson,” Brush & Pencil 4: 6 (September 1899), p. 285). As health concerns confined Robinson primarily to the area surrounding his house, his work from the summer of 1895 is exemplified by intimate depictions of that domestic and pastoral environment, of which Correspondence is perhaps the best example.

Robinson typically painted landscapes en plein air, but he based figural compositions on photographs; that technique helped bring to fruition his synthetic approach, providing him with a balanced compositional base on which to experiment liberally with color. In his diary from July 1895, Robinson mentions the photographs that helped give shape to Correspondence: “Took two photos of Miss Rean in her hammock writing letters, a little white table by, and the cat on the ground eating cat-nip—an excellent way to keep him in one spot.” (Diary, Townshend, July 21, 1895) “Miss Rean” was likely one of Robins🙈on’s students from Evelyn College, and Robinson began work on the canvas three days later (Diary, Townshend, July 24, 1895).

Floating in her hammock in a lush midsummer landscape, the West River flowing tranquilly behind her, the sitter is captured in a reflective moment, the light touch of the artist’s brush rendering perfectly the essence of a young woman who is herself coming into being. Writing of Correspondence, scholar of American Impressionism Dr. William H. Gerdts notes that Robinson “expended a good deal of time and thought on this picture, seeking in the figure and head of his model the ‘fine sobriety’ of Vermeer. (Robinson diaries, August 12, 1895)” (Gerdts, “West River Valley: Theodore Robinson, Vermont, and the Search for American Modernism,” in Owen Gallery, Theodore Robinson, West River Valley, Vermont, n.d., fol. 3r) Significantly, the artist captures serene effects of light and color without abandoning the valued principles of formal composition: the principal structural elements—the hammock, the young girl, and the small table beside her—are renderܫed descriptively, their integrity retained amidst exuberant planes of color. Monet’s influence is clearly revealed in the broken brushwork of the lush foliage surrounding the figure, but the more subtle range of tones represents well Robinson’s distinctly grounded, “American” approach.

By the time of his death in 1896, Robinson’s formative contribution to the popularity of Impressionism in America was widely recognized. As Gerdts has written, "The most significant of the American Givernois was Theodore Robinson. Though he died quite young, his work received far more critical notice in America than that of other artists during Impressionism's crucial formative years there [...]. Most important, his painting was stronger, more varied, and at its best perhaps more beautiful than that of many of his contemporaries." (American Impressionism, New York, 1984, p. 66) Correspondence exemplifies the painter’s successful reconciliation of Impressionism&𒅌rsquo;s concern for light and color with the academic priorities of form and structure, while capturing the ideal and tranquil beauty of rural American life.