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American Art and Pennsylvania Impressionists
|
- Sale 6384
Live
| Philadelphia
Dec 7 | 1:00 PM EST
Live
| Philadelphia
Sale 6384
| Philadelphia
| Philadelphia
Estimate$6,000 – $10,000
Playing with Jimmy will be recorded in the forthcoming Catalogue Raisonné of Theodore Earl Butler currently in preparation. We wish to thank Patrick Bertrand for his assistance in the cataloguing of this work.
Provenance:
Private Collection, New York, New York.
The Ira Williams Vagnino Collection.
Richard York Gallery, New York, New York.
R. H. Love Galleries, Chicago, Illinois.
Richard York Gallery, New York, New York.
R. H. Love Galleries, Chicago, Illinois.
Acquired directly from the above.
Private Collection, Illinois.
Exhibited:
Chicago, R. H. Love Galleries, "Theodore Earl Butler: Emergence from Monet's Shadow," June 15 – July 6, 1996 (and traveling).
Chicago, R. H. Love Galleries, "Theodore Earl Butler, An American Impressionist," December 16, 2000 – January 31, 2001.
Literature:
Richard R. Love, Theodore Earl Butler: An American Impressionist, Chicago, Chicago, 1985, pp. 131-132, pl. A.
Richard York Gallery, Theodore Earl Butler, New York, an exhibition catalogue, illustrated back cover, pl. 3.
Lot Note:
Painted in 1893 at Giverny, Playing with Jimmy captures a tender domestic moment between Butler’s wife, Suzanne Hoschedé-Monet—Claude Monet’s stepdaughter—and their infant son, Jimmy Butler. With its brilliant palette and interlocking geometric design, the work stands among the artist’s most refined explorations of light, color, and form.
The composition reveals Butler’s deep engagement with both French Impressionism and the emerging decorative modernism of the Nabis. He orchestrates a rhythmic interplay of curves and planes—the vase of flowers, the mother and child, the table and mirror—creating a luminous pattern that transforms everyday intimacy into pictorial harmony.
As noted by Richard R. Love (Theodore Earl Butler: An American Impressionist, Chicago, Chicago, 1985, pp. 131-132, pl. A), this canvas represents a pivotal moment in Butler’s evolution, anticipating the spatial abstraction later pursued by Bonnard and Vuillard.
A rare fusion of American warmth and French sophistication, Playing with Jimmy is a masterwork of Butler’s early Giverny period, and an affectionate family portrait that also marks a turning point in his modernist vision.
Framed: 28 x 32 1/4 in.
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Adam Veil
VP, Head of Department, American Art and Pennsylvania Impressionists
