Theodore Robinson
Theodore Robinson | 1852–96 | A Bird's-Eye View 1889 | Oil on canvas | 65.4 x 81.3cm | Gift of George A Hearn 1910 (10.64.9) | Collection: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York | Photograph courtesy: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
A Bird’s Eye View 1889
Theodore Robinson (1852–96) first visited Giverny, the subject of this picture, in 1887. He befriended Claude Monet and subsequently his painting was influenced by Monet’s impressionist style. Robinson's painted surfaces are more varied than those of Monet, but still betray many of the colouristic and compositional aspects of French Impressionism.
This view of Giverny was completed two years after Robinson’s introduction to the village, and portrays the quaint stone houses and rolling fields from the vantage point of a hill above the village. While the houses and walls provide the central motif of the painting, it is the soft atmospheric colour and tonal gradations that give the picture its impressionistic qualities.
