Richard E. Miller

This oil painting by Richard E. Miller focuses on soft femininity as it exists within an interior space. The figure's muted green dress takes up half of the composition, being articulated with a simple yet pleasing plaid pattern. The focus becomes the action, with the woman daintily laying her hands over a glass ball, divorced from the viewer and staring distantly as if entranced by memory or thought.

Richard Edward Miller was an American Impressionist known for his paintings of romantic femininity. He was a student for five years at the Saint Louis School of Fine Arts, and a contributor to the Saint Louis Post Dispatch. In 1898 he obtained a grant and pursued his studies at the Académie Julian in Paris where he was a student of Benjamin Constant and of Jean-Paul Laurens. He remained in France for over twenty years. From 1906 he worked at St-Jean-du-Doigt in Brittany and particularly in Giverny. Miller taught at the Académie Colarossi in Paris during the academic year and gave summer classes in St-Jean-du-Doigt and Giverny. He was a member of the Salmagundi Club, of the Association of American Artists in Paris and the Group of American Painters in Paris. He returned to the US during World War I. For the most part, Miller painted human figures and open-air studies like his friend Frieseke, in contrast with his own earlier scenes of Parisian night-life executed before 1905 in which the influence of Degas and Manet could be seen. His preference was for pure, bright brushed colours reminiscent of Bonnard, and his portraits showed a gentle sensuality.

In 1901 Miller took part in the Salon des Artistes Français in Paris for the first time and was awarded a Gold Medal. He won a second medal in 1904 and the Légion d'Honneur in 1906. In 1904 he took part in the Universal Exhibition in St Louis, and in 1910 the 'Giverny Group' exhibition in New York together with Frieseke, Parker and Rose. He was made a Chevalier of the Légion d'Honneur in 1908.' (Benezit, Dictionary of Artists, Gründ, 2006)