Thomas Buford Meteyard was an American painter and graphic artist, who worked at the crossroads of some of the most important art movements of his day. After growing up in Rock Island, Illinois, and studying at Harvard (1885-87), Meteyard went to England where he encountered members of the Aesthetic Movement, notably designer Walter Crane (1845–1915) and painter and illustrator Edward Burne-Jones (1833–1898). He then travelled to Paris, where Meteyard entered the atelier of the master academic painter Léon Bonnat (1833-1922), while also studying with Alfred Phillippe Roll (1846-1919) and Auguste-Joseph Delecluse (1855-1928).

Meteyard continued to travel, and in the early 1890s, joined the international artists’ colony at Giverny, just north of Paris. Like so many other artists, including the Americans Robert Vonnoh (1858-1933), Lilla Cabot Perry (1848-1933), and John Leslie Breck (1859-1899), Meteyard was attracted to Giverny by its natural beauty and by the presence there of Claude Monet (1840-1926). Predictably, Meteyard was influenced by the Impressionists and, like them, took a keen interest in the aesthetics of Asian art. But he also developed talents in the graphic arts and was associated with the Symbolists, such as the poet Stéphane Mallarmé (1842-1898). Meteyard flourished in Europe’s bohemian milieu and was one of the first Americans to have his work included in the early Post-Impressionist exhibitions.

Meteyard moved to England once again in 1906, and after marrying British-born Isabel Barber in 1910, became a permanent resident. He continued to work as a landscape painter until his death.

With thanks to artbiogs.co.uk

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