Birthday Impressions


Old Church at Giverny American impressionist painter Theodore Robinson was born on this day in 1852.

Theodore Robinson was among the first Americans to spend time in Giverny, a village northwest of Paris, where French impressionist Claude Monet lived and created his famous garden. The steeple of Giverny's old church appears in the center of this composition, while lush, flower covered hills surround and envelop it.

To enjoy more paintings by Theodore Robinson, visit our traveling exhibition American Impressionism: Treasures from the Smithsonian American Art Museum, currently on view at at the Guild Hall Museum in East Hampton, New York.

Source: Joann Moser. American Impressionism: Treasures from the Smithsonian American Art Museum (exhibition text, Smithsonian American Art Museum, 1999).

Pictured: Theodore Robinson, 1852–96, Old Church at Giverny, 1891, oil, 18 1/8 x 22 1/8 in., Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of William T. Evans.