Theodore Robinson, Decorative Influences

"At the Piano" by Theodore Robinson

"Not long after Theodore Robinson's arrival in New York he entered the employ of Mr. La Farge, who added him to the number at work there who persuaded themselves for a year or so that the days of the Italian Renaissance were revived on Manhattan Island. Here he developed a delicate and refined decorative sense that, at the time, promised to dominate his work.

He had always had a very pretty vein of imagination, and as he was a man of extensive reading, he made many composition sketches, inspired most frequently by the poets.

Taking him as he was, then or later, he was to his intimates a rare and cheering presence. But the indifferent he opposed with an indifference that was almost monumental; and these could scarce understand the charm which lay hidden in this reticent, self-reliant - and at times cynically frank - personality.

His delicate constitution imposed from his birth many burdens upon him, and he had early learned to limit his enjoyments in work or play. He systematically demanded little from the world in general, only willing to receive from his intimates much less than he gave in return.

He went to fill a similar position in Boston in a decorative house established there by Prentice Treadwell where he remained for three years creating works entirely of his own invention so that in a number of private houses in Newport and elsewhere there is charming decoration by his hand.

After this period he found himself in possession of sufficient means to return to Europe, where, in France, under the influence of Claude Monet, his art was to mature.

To be continued

(Excerpts are from Will Low Hicok's "A Chronicle of Friendships, 1873-1900.")