Theodore Wendel

Giverny Haystacks

ca. 1887

Wendel was an American Impressionist who first received his education in Ohio at the Cincinnati University School of Design before travelling to Italy, Germany, and most notably Giverny, France in the late nineteenth-century to study and develop his artistry. After studying this French countryside and drawing inspiration from Impressionist contemporaries like Claude Monet, Wendel incorporated what he learned into his own work, gradually replacing French motifs with American ones. Wendel settled down in Ipswich, Massachusetts with his family, where he began to paint with a combination of plein air motifs and Impressionist techniques. He focused primarily on rendering organic subjects outside, using bright colors to make idealized images of the countryside and those who resided within it.