Richard E. Miller (1875-1943) Impressionist painter

Richard E. Miller was a native of St. Louis, Missouri, where he first studied at the local School of Fine Arts and served as a staff illustrator for the St. Louis Post Dispatch.

He continued his studies at the Académie Julian from 1898-1901 and remained a resident of France until the outbreak of the Great War in 1914 prompted his return to America.

One of the many Americans who worked at Giverny during these years, he became a familiar of Frederick Frieseke🎨 and together they often met at Monet's home to paint, critique and socialize.

Miller readily adopted an aesthetic similar to that of Frieseke: wistful maidens relaxing in sun-flecked gardens painted with broken strokes in impressionist colors.

Repeated diagonals of figures and furniture generally characterize the patterning of his canvases, a dynamic that strengthens their inherent introspection.

When he came back to the States he taught for a while in Pasadena, California, strongly influencing the Impressionist movement just emerging there. After the war he purchased a home in Provincetown, Massachusetts, where he remained until his death in 1943.

It was his avowed intent to please with his canvases, painting them, he said:

• "not for the staid environment of museums, but for the comfortable intimacy of people's homes". "Art's mission", he asserted, "is not literary, the telling of a story, but decorative, the conveying of a pleasant optical sensation".

Though they have been dismissed as "confections", his works have continued to provide modest pleasure.

Awards🎨

• National Academician; Bronze Medal, Pan-American Exposition, 1901;
• Silver Medal, St. Louis World's Fair, 1904;
• Silver Medal, Paris Salon, 1904;
• Chevalier de La Legion D'honneur.

Richard E. Miller (22 marzo 1875 - 23 gennaio 1943) è stato un pittore impressionista Americano🎨 e membro della colonia di impressionisti americani di Giverny.

Miller era principalmente un pittore figurativo, noto per i suoi dipinti di donne in posa languidamente in interni od ambienti esterni.

Miller è cresciuto a St. Louis, ha studiato a Parigi e poi si è stabilito a Giverny.

Al suo ritorno in America, si stabilì brevemente a Pasadena, in California, e poi nella colonia artistica di Provincetown, nel Massachusetts, dove rimase per il resto della sua vita.

Miller era membro della National Academy of Design di New York ed un pittore pluripremiato della sua epoca, onorato in Francia ed in Italia e vincitore della Legione d'Onore francese.

Negli ultimi decenni, è stato oggetto di una retrospettiva ed il suo lavoro è stato ampiamente riprodotto in cataloghi di mostre e presentato in numerosi libri sull'impressionismo Americano.