BiographyButler was the son of the American impressionist painter Theodore E. Butler and Suzanne Hoschedé, who was Claude Monet's stepdaughter and favorite model. He spent the first 20 years of his life primarily at Giverny. In 1913, the Butler family relocated to New York and remained there until 1921. Theodore Butler was a founding member of the Society of American Artists, and both Butlers exhibited works with the SIA every year between 1917 and 1923. James P. Butler also exhibited at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts from 1912 through 1917.