Landscape at Auvers, 1890 signed by William Henry Howe NA (1846-1929), attribtued to Theodore Robinson (X-X), 13 3/4″ x 19 3/4″, signed lower left.
When Mr. Best purchased Landscape at Auvers in 2007, it was sold under the premise that William Henry Howe was the painter– a reasonable assumption seeing as the piece reads “Howe” in its lower right hand corner. As such, it was listed in Mr. Best’s personal catalogue as a piece by William Henry Howe. Our team assumed no differently.
Upon receiving the piece, along with all of Mr. Best’s receipts and artwork-related communications, our team discovered that Mr. Best himself was unsure of its attribution. In 2008, Mr. Best had sent an application to the catalogue raisonne of Theodore Robinson, a renowned contemporary of Howe, providing a signed letter from Mr. John H. I. Baur, the former director of the Whitney Museum of Art. Mr. Baur is a known expert on Robinson’s work, producing multiple exhibitions honoring the painter, and asserted that he believes “Landscape at Auvers” to be of Robinson’s own hand. Indeed, the subject and style are characteristic of Robinson’s work, further corroborated by Robinson being in this region of France at the painting’s date.
There is no documentation that shows that the creators of Robinson’s catalogue raisonne accepted or outright rejected Mr. Best’s proposal. Regardless, the painter’s identity is contested: either proving the piece to be an impressive impressionist outlier of William Henry Howe’s oeuvre, or a logical inclusion for Theodore Robinson’s extensive collection of impressionist French landscapes.
Medium: Oil on canvas
Howe was born in Ohio in 1846. Studies in Paris with the animal painters. de Thoren and Vullisfroy convinced him to concentrate on rendering pastoral scenes of sheep and cattle often tended by shepherds and herders. He traveled in Holland spending time in Larens, a favorite hamlet frequented by American artists. The Barbizon artists Troyon and Millet greatly influenced his work. He received many honors including a gold medal at the Paris Salon of 1888 and a year later the Cross of the Legion d'Honneur. He was one of the founders of the colony at Old Lyme, Connecticut, a member of the Salmagundi Club and the National Academy.
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