Portrait of Gustave Caillebotte

Gustave Caillebotte Painting Reproductions 4 of 4

1848-1894

French Impressionist Painter

Gustave Caillebotte (August 19, 1848 - February 21, 1894), was a French painter, member and patron of the group of artists known as Impressionists, stamp collector, and yacht engineer.

Gustave Caillebotte was born on August 19, 1848 to an upper-class Parisian family. His father, Martial Caillebotte (1799-1874), was the inheritor of the family's textile industry and was also a judge at the Seine's Tribunal de Commerce. Caillebotte's father had been twice widowed before marrying Caillebotte's mother, Celeste Daufresne (1819-1878), who had two more sons after Gustave, Rene (1851-1876) and Martial (1853-1910).

Caillebotte was born at his family's home on rue du Faubourg-Saint-Denis in Paris, and lived on that street until 1866 when his father had a home built on rue de Miromesnil in Paris. The Caillebottes began spending many of their summers in Yerres, a town on the Yerres River about 12 miles south of Paris, in 1860, when Martial Caillebotte, Sr. bought a large property there. It was around this time that Caillebotte probably began to draw and paint. Many of Caillebotte's paintings depict members of his family and daily domestic life; Young Man at His Window, 1875, shows Rene in the home on rue de Miromesnil, The Orange Trees, 1878, depicts Martial Jr. and his cousin Zoe in the garden of the family property at Yerres, and Portraits in the Country, 1875, includes Caillebotte's mother along with his aunt, cousin, and a family friend.

Caillebotte earned a law degree in 1868 and a license to practice law in 1870. Shortly afterwards, he was drafted to fight in the Franco-Prussian war, and served in the Garde Mationale Mobile de la Seine. After the war, Caillebotte began visiting the studio of painter Leon Bonnat, where he began to seriously study painting. In 1873, Caillebotte entered into the Ecole des Beaux-Arts, but apparently did not spend much time there. Around this time, Caillebotte met and befriended several artists working outside the official French academy, including Edgar Degas and Giuseppe de Nittis, and attended (but did not participate in) the first Impressionist exhibition of 1874.

Caillebotte's sizable allowance and the inheritance he received after the death of his father in 1874 and his mother in 1878 allowed him to paint without the pressure to sell his work. It also allowed him to help fund Impressionist Exhibitions and support his fellow artists and friends (including Claude Monet, Auguste Renoir, and Camille Pissarro among others) by purchasing their works and, at least in the case of Monet, paying the rent for their studios. In addition, Caillebotte used his wealth to fund a variety of hobbies for which he was quite passionate, including stamp collecting (his collection is now in the British Museum), orchid horticulture, yacht building, and even textile design (the women in his paintings Madame Boissiere Knitting, 1877, and Portrait of Madame Caillebotte, 1877, may be working on patterns created by Caillebotte).

Caillebotte's style belongs to the school of Realism. As did his predecessors Jean-Francois Millet and Gustave Courbet, as well his contemporary Degas, Caillebotte aimed to paint reality as it existed and as he saw it, hoping to reduce painting's inherent theatricality. He also shared the Impressionists' commitment to optical truth. Caillebotte painted many domestic, familial scenes, interiors, and figures in a landscape at Yerres, but he is most well known for his paintings of urban Paris, such as The Floor Scrapers, 1875, Le pont de l'Europe, 1876, and Paris Street, Rainy Day, 1877. These paintings were quite controversial for their banal and often lower-class subjects, and for their exaggerated, plunging perspective. The tilted ground common to these paintings is very characteristic of Caillebotte's work, which may have been strongly influenced by Japanese prints and the new technology of photography. Cropping and "zooming in," techniques which are also commonly found in Caillebotte's oeuvre, may also be the result of his interest in photography. A large number of Caillebotte's works also employ a very high vantage point, including his many balcony paintings such as Vue des toits, effet de neige, 1878 and Boulevard vu d'en haut, 1880.

Caillebotte's painting career slowed dramatically in the 1890s, when he stopped making large canvases and showing his work. He acquired a property at Petit Gennevilliers, on the banks of the Seine near Argenteuil, in 1881, and moved there permanently in 1888. He devoted himself to gardening and to building and racing yachts, and spent much time with his brother, Martial, and his friend Renoir, who often came to stay at Petit Gennevilliers. It is alleged by many sources that before his death, he had an affair with a much younger woman, Emilie Schlauch, but this can not be confirmed or denied based on the historical evidence that has been left to us. Caillebotte died while working in his garden at Petit Gennevilliers in 1894 of pulmonary congestion, and was interred in the Pere Lachaise Cemetery in Paris.

For many years, Caillebotte's reputation as a painter was superseded by his reputation as a supporter of the arts. Seventy years after his death, however, art historians began reevaluating his artistic contributions.

Caillebotte's Collection
In his will, Caillebotte donated a large collection to the French government. This collection included sixty-eight paintings by various artists: Camille Pissarro (nineteen), Claude Monet (fourteen), Pierre-Auguste Renoir (ten), Alfred Sisley (nine), Edgar Degas (seven), Paul Cezanne (five), and Edouard Manet (four).

At the time of Caillebotte's death, the Impressionists were still largely condemned by the art establishment in France, which was dominated by Academic art and specifically the Academie des beaux-arts. Because of this, Caillebotte realised that the cultural treasures in his collection would likely disappear into "attics" and "provincial museums". He therefore stipulated that they must be displayed in the Luxembourg Palace (devoted to the work of living artists), and then in the Louvre.

Unfortunately, the French government would not agree to these terms. In February 1896, they finally negotiated terms with Renoir, who was the will's executor, under which they took thirty-eight of the paintings to the Luxembourg. The remaining twenty-nine paintings (one was taken by Renoir in payment for his services as executor) were offered to the French government twice more, in 1904 and 1908, and were both times refused. When the government finally attempted to claim them in 1928, the bequest was repudiated by the widow of Caillebotte's son. Most of the remaining works were purchased by Albert C. Barnes, and are now held by the Barnes Foundation of Philadelphia.

Forty of Caillebotte's own works are now held by the Musee d'Orsay. His L'Homme au balcon, boulevard Haussmann, painted in 1880, sold for more than $14.3 million in 2000.

89 Caillebotte Paintings

Cliffs by the Sea at Trouville, n.d. by Caillebotte | Painting Reproduction

Cliffs by the Sea at Trouville n.d.

Oil Painting
$483
Canvas Print
$89.35
SKU: GUC-6579
Gustave Caillebotte
Original Size: 54.3 x 65.4 cm
Private Collection

Traffic Island on Boulevard Haussmann, 1880 by Caillebotte | Painting Reproduction

Traffic Island on Boulevard Haussmann 1880

Oil Painting
$406
Canvas Print
$75.97
SKU: GUC-6580
Gustave Caillebotte
Original Size: 81 x 101 cm
Private Collection

Study for Le Pont de l'Europe, 1876 by Caillebotte | Painting Reproduction

Study for Le Pont de l'Europe 1876

Oil Painting
$464
Canvas Print
$63.23
SKU: GUC-6581
Gustave Caillebotte
Original Size: 83.2 x 122.5 cm
Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo, USA

Nude on a Couch, 1890 by Caillebotte | Painting Reproduction

Nude on a Couch 1890

Oil Painting
$682
Canvas Print
$50.65
SKU: GUC-6582
Gustave Caillebotte
Original Size: 129.5 x 195.6 cm
Minneapolis Institute of Arts, Minnesota, USA

Canoe on the Yerres River, 1878 by Caillebotte | Painting Reproduction

Canoe on the Yerres River 1878

Oil Painting
$574
Canvas Print
$61.17
SKU: GUC-6583
Gustave Caillebotte
Original Size: 65 x 81 cm
Norton Simon Museum of Art, Pasadena, USA

The Flatness of Gennevilliers, 1884 by Caillebotte | Painting Reproduction

The Flatness of Gennevilliers 1884

Oil Painting
$505
SKU: GUC-6584
Gustave Caillebotte
Original Size: 54 x 65 cm
Biblioteca Luis Angel Arango, Bogota, Colombia

Yellow Roses in a Vase, 1882 by Caillebotte | Painting Reproduction

Yellow Roses in a Vase 1882

Oil Painting
$483
Canvas Print
$61.29
SKU: GUC-16830
Gustave Caillebotte
Original Size: 53.3 x 45.7 cm
Dallas Museum of Art, Texas, USA

Portrait of Henri Cordier, 1883 by Caillebotte | Painting Reproduction

Portrait of Henri Cordier 1883

Oil Painting
$681
Canvas Print
$60.61
SKU: GUC-16831
Gustave Caillebotte
Original Size: 65 x 81.5 cm
Musee d'Orsay, Paris, France

The Fields, a Plain in Gennevilliers, 1884 by Caillebotte | Painting Reproduction

The Fields, a Plain in Gennevilliers 1884

Oil Painting
$438
Canvas Print
$62.27
SKU: GUC-16832
Gustave Caillebotte
Original Size: 54 x 65 cm
Private Collection

Portrait of Richard Gallo, 1878 by Caillebotte | Painting Reproduction

Portrait of Richard Gallo 1878

Oil Painting
$618
Canvas Print
$61.30
SKU: GUC-16833
Gustave Caillebotte
Original Size: 80 x 65 cm
Private Collection

At a Café, 1880 by Caillebotte | Painting Reproduction

At a Café 1880

Oil Painting
$777
Canvas Print
$58.53
SKU: GUC-16834
Gustave Caillebotte
Original Size: 156 x 114 cm
Musee des Beaux-Arts, Rouen, France

Man at his Bath, 1884 by Caillebotte | Painting Reproduction

Man at his Bath 1884

Oil Painting
$684
Canvas Print
$55.35
SKU: GUC-16835
Gustave Caillebotte
Original Size: 144.8 x 114.3 cm
Boston Museum of Fine Arts, Massachusetts, USA

Sunflowers, Garden at Petit Gennevilliers, 1885 by Caillebotte | Painting Reproduction

Sunflowers, Garden at Petit Gennevilliers 1885

Oil Painting
$764
Canvas Print
$59.92
SKU: GUC-18088
Gustave Caillebotte
Original Size: 131 x 105 cm
Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum, Madrid, Spain

Garden Path with Dahlias in Petit Gennevilliers, c.1890/91 by Caillebotte | Painting Reproduction

Garden Path with Dahlias in Petit Gennevilliers c.1890/91

Oil Painting
$721
Canvas Print
$61.71
SKU: GUC-18089
Gustave Caillebotte
Original Size: 101 x 81 cm
Private Collection

Laundry Drying, Petit Gennevilliers, 1888 by Caillebotte | Painting Reproduction

Laundry Drying, Petit Gennevilliers 1888

Oil Painting
$525
Canvas Print
$63.10
SKU: GUC-18090
Gustave Caillebotte
Original Size: 54 x 65 cm
Private Collection

The Path in the Garden, 1886 by Caillebotte | Painting Reproduction

The Path in the Garden 1886

Oil Painting
$570
Canvas Print
$61.03
SKU: GUC-18153
Gustave Caillebotte
Original Size: 81.6 x 73.3 cm
Dallas Museum of Art, Texas, USA

Cottage in Trouville, 1882 by Caillebotte | Painting Reproduction

Cottage in Trouville 1882

Oil Painting
$532
Canvas Print
$59.92
SKU: GUC-19002
Gustave Caillebotte
Original Size: 65 x 82 cm
Fuji Art Museum, Tokyo, Japan

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