Theodore Earl Butler
Theodore Earl Butler (1861–1936) was an American impressionist painter. He was born in Columbus, Ohio, and moved to Paris to study art. He befriended Claude Monet in Giverny, and married his stepdaughter, Suzanne Hoschedé.
Also recorded as Theodore Butler · Theodore E. Butler · Earl Butler · T.-E. Butler
Theodore Earl Butler

Theodore Earl Butler · Patrick Bertrand · Public domain
- Born
- 1861. · Columbus.
- Nationality
- United States.
- Occupation
- painter.
- Fields
- watercolor.
- Movements
- American Impressionism.
- Education
- Art Students League of New York and Marietta College.
- Known for
- Flags.
- Languages
- English.
VALÉORINE Encyclopedia
VALÉORINE documentary reading
Documentary summary
Theodore Earl Butler (1861–1936) was an American impressionist painter. He was born in Columbus, Ohio, and moved to Paris to study art. He befriended Claude Monet in Giverny, and married his stepdaughter, Suzanne Hoschedé.
Admitted source layer · organised and presented by VALÉORINE
Note VALÉORINE
Theodore Earl Butler (1861–1936) was an American painter. Born in Columbus, the painter died in Giverny.
Theodore Earl Butler studied at Art Students League of New York and Marietta College. The painter was active in watercolor. Theodore Earl Butler was associated with American Impressionism.
Works include Flags. Genres include portrait. Languages used include English. Works by the painter are held at Birmingham Museum of Art, Carnegie Museum of Art and Columbus Museum of Art, among others.
Composed from admitted, traceable facts · 27 September 2026
VALÉORINE
Reference Check
Propose documentary evidence for Theodore Earl Butler. A contribution is never written directly as fact: identity, source, rights and evidence gates still decide.
Sign in to contribute
World of VALÉORINE
Documentary connections
Only confirmed graph relationships appear here. Images are shown only when their identity and reuse rights both pass the documentary gate.
Documentary evidence
Evidence Panel
not yet certified
- Identity
- resolved
- Independent source families
- 0
- Admitted assertions
- 0
- Open conflicts
- 0
Authority files
wikidata · Q3523689 · wikipedia · Theodore Earl Butler
In this article
Biography
Biography
After her death he married her sister, Marthe Hoschedé. Butler was a founding member of the Society of Independent Artists. Butler's chosen subjects were domestic scenes of family and friends and the French landscape. Although his Impressionistic approach to painting sometimes reflected the influence of his father-in-law, his work also suggests Post-Impressionist tendencies.
Theodore Earl Butler studied at Art Students League of New York and Marietta College. The recorded working language is English. The field of work recorded is watercolor. Subjects and genres recorded for the work are portrait. Claude Monet is recorded as an influence. Works named in the authority record are Flags. Work by Theodore Earl Butler is recorded in the collections of Metropolitan Museum of Art, Carnegie Museum of Art, Philadelphia Museum of Art, El Paso Museum of Art and Birmingham Museum of Art.
Butler studied at Marietta College in Ohio and graduated in 1882. He studied at the Art Students League with James Carroll Beckwith, Kenyon Cox and J. Alden Weir, and under William Merritt Chase from 1884 to 1886. One of Butler's first paintings is a copy of Menippus by Diego Velázquez (1639–1641), Standing Bearded Man (1885). Butler then moved to study in Paris. In Paris, Butler enrolled at La Grande-Chaumière, Académie Colarossi and at Académie Julian. Butler studied under Emile Carolus Duran. Carolus opened an art studio in 1873 on Boulevard Montparnasse, called the "81". Carolus, who was also known to have given free private lessons to some painters, introduced his students to the work of Claude Monet. Monet had moved to Giverny on April 29, 1883. Butler stayed for some time in the same building as Carolus, and Butler won an honorable mention in 1888 at the Paris Salon for a painting entitled "La Veuve", (the Widow).
Butler at Giverny
Butler at Giverny
Butler signed the register under number 11 at Hotel Baudy in 1888 (May 20 – September 1888) along with Theodore Wendel, an Ohioan who also studied at Academy Julian. Butler stayed again at Hotel Baudy from October 1891 until July 21, 1892. Besides himself, other American painters who spent time in Giverny included John Leslie Breck, Frederick Carl Frieseke, Edmund Greacen, Philip Leslie Hale, Willard Metcalf, Lilla Cabot Perry, Theodore Robinson and Guy Rose. On July 3 Butler and Robinson had dinner at Monet's house. Angelina and Lucien Baudy opened Hotel Baudy in June 1887. The hotel became the hub for many American expatriates. At Hotel Baudy, artists could buy canvases from Lefevre Foinet and American food celebrating Thanksgiving was served. The village began to attract a great deal of attention. According to Terra Museum historians Katherine M. Bourguignon and Vanessa Lecomte, over 350 painters from eighteen countries painted in Giverny. An exhibition of foreign artists including Butler, Meteyard, Fox, Dice, Stasburg and Dawson Watson was organized from January 31, 1892 to February 1892. After becoming close friends with Claude Monet, Butler married Monet's stepdaughter, Suzanne Hoschedé in 1892. Suzanne is known as The woman with a Parasol and she was Claude Monet's favorite model. The event of their marriage is described by Theodore Robinson in his diaries as a great day – The marriage of Butler and Mlle. Suzanne. Everybody nearly at the church – the peasants – many almost unrecognizable... Monet entering first with Suzanne, then Butler and Mme. H (Hoschede). Considerable feeling on the part of the parents – a breakfast at the atelier – lasting most of the afternoon. Frequent showers, champagne and gaiety … Dinner and evening at the Monet's – bride and groom left at 7:3 for the Paris train. The event was also immortalized in a painting by Theodore Robinson titled The Wedding March. Butler became a key player and link between the American Colony and Claude Monet. The Butler family organized many dinners such as one held October 25, 1892 with Robinson, Hale, Hart and Marthe Hoschedé. Butler decided to buy an orchard and built a new house. "We, Suzanne and Jimmy and I wish that you were here we'd like to see you first rate. I have been working some, about half as much as I should – perhaps less – We are building a house back of Peggy's in that little orchard you must remember. Said house is to be a wonder of elegance and taste – You will see it next year perhaps." Butler participated in the publication and conception of the Courier Innocent. He did the cover and illustrated many pages. Butler painted a series of his own family: son Jimmy Butler born in 1893, and daughter Lilly Butler born in 1894. Those paintings included series entitled The Bath, After the Bath, and Playing with Jimmy. Butler developed his own impressionist style with light palettes and loose brushstrokes, reminiscent of works done by Édouard Vuillard and Pierre Bonnard. From his garden he painted landscapes showing the church of Giverny, The Demoiselles (small haystacks) and the grain stacks. After a lingering illness, Suzanne Hoschede died in 1899. Thereafter most of Butler's paintings were landscapes. Marthe Hoschede, Suzanne's sister helped Butler raise Jimmy and Lilly. In 1899 Theodore Earl Butler decided to go back to the United States. A letter from Henry Prellwitz to Philip Leslie Hale indicated that Hart told him that Butler will sail on September 16 on La Touraine. Butler had several one man shows in New York City. He exhibited in 1900 at Paul Durand-Ruel gallery in New York. A critic wrote: Mr. Butler moves in another sphere from common folk, and his retina must have a peculiar faculty for chromatic analysis... There is an attempt to lift these excesses to an airy height by adding a poetic flavor in the titles as in No. 24. "Rain Clouds": but if the title is correct it must have been raining bricks, for there is no misty vapory thinness: everything is as solidly packed as a steamer trunk-hence the elevated conceit comes down with a dull thud. No 3 "A Floating Mist" and Nos. 5 and 11, showing the same haystack under the baptism of an opalescent and an autumn sunrise declare some better work. Claude Monet, the great luminarist, who proved at least to the world the reasonableness of his artistic conceptions may not be proud of his Giverny pupil who should rub up against some of his own American trees and get down out of the clouds. After six months he was back in Giverny. He married Marthe Hoschedé, Suzanne's sister in 1900. The Butler family and the Rose family, Ethel and Guy Rose, rented summer houses in Veules les Roses. Butler was also a close friend of Philip Hale, John Singer Sargent, and Maximilien Luce.
Butler in the USA (1913–1921)
Butler in the USA (1913–1921)
In 1914, the Butler family moved to New York when Butler got a commission to paint mural panels for the home of William Paine. He contributed two paintings to the 1913 Armory Show in New York City, Marine and Fourteenth of July, Paris. He founded with his friend, John Sloan, the Society of Independent Artists and served on its board from 1918 to 1921. The breakout of World War I prevented Butler from returning to Giverny until 1921. In the meantime, Butler became involved with the American Red Cross and raised funds with Marthe Hoschedé. He marked that occasion with a painting titled All Together.
Work
Work
From the time of his first marriage and after the birth of his children, Butler concentrated especially on domestic subjects, painted indoors or in his garden. Monet's influence on American expatriate painters in Giverny was important, and a similarity between Butler's palette and that of Monet has been noted in the paintings of the 1890s. Equally noticeable in Butler's brushwork are qualities that align him with the work of Paul Gauguin and the Nabis artists. In his later work Butler experimented further with Fauve principles, painting landscapes in Giverny and on the Normandy coast, sometimes applying color directly from the tube to decorative ends.
Ancestry
Ancestry
Theodore Earl Butler was the son of Courtland Philip Livingston Butler (1813–1891) and Elizabeth Slade Pierce (1822–1901). His son, James Butler, was also a painter, and as the grandson of Claude Monet, was one of only four painters to have painted in Monet's garden in Giverny. His sister Mary Elizabeth Sheldon, née Butler (1849–1897), was the paternal great grandmother of U.S. President George H. W. Bush and the great-great grandmother of U.S. President George W. Bush.

Theodore Earl Butler 1861-1936 | American East River Signed and dated "T.E. Butler 00" (lower left) Oil on canvas Dated 1900
Theodore Earl Butler · Private Collection
Life and career
Dated record
Life and career
The full dated record · 2 entries
1861
Theodore Earl Butler born at Columbus.
1936
Theodore Earl Butler died at Giverny.
Places
Named by the record
Places
Only places the record itself states, plotted where the house gazetteer settles their coordinates. Nothing is inferred from a name or a nationality.
Columbus.
Birth place
Giverny.
Death place
Primary material
Documents and archives
Institutional database
- Wikidata, structured authority record Q3523689: Theodore Earl Butler
Scholarly · Wikimedia Foundation
reference work
- “Theodore Earl Butler”, English Wikipedia, consulted as further reading
Reputable secondary · Wikipedia
Notes from the source article
Cited by Wikipedia
Notes from the source article
These works are cited by the source article, in its own numbering. They are recorded as its citations, not as sources VALÉORINE has verified.
- 1.Museum Del Prado Spain
- 2.Birmingham Museum of Art. Birmingham Museum of Art: A Guide to the Collection. Giles. 143. 2010. 978-1-904832-77-5.
- 3.Robinson Diaries, Frick Art Reference Library, New York
- 4.microfilm D98, Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC
- 5.Article, Vol 2 number 10 March 15, 1900.
- 6.Patrick Bertrand
- 7.Title:All Together, Exhibited at the Society of Independent Artists,1921- Reproduced, New York Times Book Review and Magazine, March 6, 1921
- 8.Wierich, Jochen, et al. Lasting Impressions: American painters in France 1865–1915, 172. Terra Foundation for the Arts, Evanston, Illinois, 1992.
- 9.Wierich, 172
- 10.Wierich, 172-175
References
Citations
References
Each reference names the institution holding it, so a reader may go to the document itself.
Institutional database
Wikidata, structured authority record Q3523689: Theodore Earl ButlerWikimedia Foundation
Verifiedreference work
Partially resolved
The Encyclopedia exists whether or not anything is for sale. Corrections are recorded rather than overwritten, and every version of this record is kept. Published 14 August 2026.
Elsewhere in Paintings
18,623 published records in this field, each with its sources named.
- Théodore BaronArtist
- Théodore Basset de JolimontArtist
- Théodore ChassériauArtist
- Theodore Clement SteeleArtist
- Théodore FrèreArtist
- Théodore GéricaultArtist
- Théodore GudinArtist
- Theodore HancockArtist
Best supported in this field
For owners
Own a work by Theodore Earl Butler?
A specialist will read what you send and tell you what the house can establish, what it cannot, and whether the object is suited to sale. There is no charge and no obligation. The object stays with you throughout; nothing is shipped to us unless it is arranged in writing beforehand.