Gustave Caillebotte was a French painter who was a member and patron of the Impressionists, although he painted in a more realistic manner than many others in the group. Caillebotte was known for his early interest in photography as an art form. Because of his family's wealth, he was a patron of many of his fellow Impressionists. Upon his death, his bequeathed collection of their works became the central collection of Impressionism for the French Republic, despite considerable controversy.
Paintings by Gustave Caillebotte
Vue de toits (Effet de neige) (1878)
Vue de toits (Effet de neige) (English title: View of rooftops (Effect of snow)) is an oil painting executed during the winter of 1878 and 1879 by French impressionist Gustave Caillebotte. The canvas measures 81 by 65 centimetres (32 in × 26 in). It was originally gifted by Caillebotte's brother in 1894 to the Musée du Luxembourg, then transferred to the Musée du Louvre in 1929. In 1947, it was moved to the Galerie nationale du Jeu de Paume, which held many impressionist works in France after World War II. In 1986, it was transferred again to the Musée d'Orsay in Paris. The painting is one of the few Caillebotte works that have remained in public view since the artist's death in 1894.
Caillebotte created many paintings showing urban Paris from unexpected perspectives, such as a streetscape seen from indoors in Jeune homme à la fenêtre (1875), or the exaggerated perspective of Rue de Paris, temps de pluie (1877). Vue de toits depicts snow-covered rooftops in Montmartre, Paris from a high vantage point, possibly a balcony. Here Caillebotte employs a largely monochromatic palette of grays, adding additional color to highlight building features. This perspective was not at all common in French paintings, and in fact Caillebotte may have been inspired by the photographic works of Hippolyte Bayard.
Le Pont de l'Europe (1876)
Le Pont de l'Europe (English title: The Europe Bridge) is an oil painting by French impressionist Gustave Caillebotte completed in 1876. It is held by the Musée du Petit Palais in Geneva, Switzerland. The canvas measures 125 by 181 centimetres (49 in × 71 in).
The image shows pedestrians in the Place de l'Europe in the 8th arrondissement of Paris. The plaza is a large bridge joining six avenues, each named for a European capital, over the railroad yards at Gare Saint-Lazare. The view is from the rue de Vienne, looking towards the center of the plaza. One of the bridge's trusses is very prominent, visible in half of the image.
Les raboteurs de parquet (1875)
Les raboteurs de parquet (English title: The Floor Scrapers) is an oil painting by French Impressionist Gustave Caillebotte. The canvas measures 102 by 146.5 centimetres (40.2 in × 57.7 in). It was originally given by Caillebotte's family in 1894 to the Musée du Luxembourg, then transferred to the Musée du Louvre in 1929. In 1947, it was moved to the Galerie nationale du Jeu de Paume, and in 1986, it was transferred again to the Musée d'Orsay in Paris, where it is currently displayed.
Caillebotte's originality lies in his attempt to combine the careful drawing, modeling and exact tonal values encouraged by the Académie with vivid colors, bold perspectives, keen sense of natural light and modern subject matter of the Impressionist movement. Painted in 1875, this work illustrates Caillebotte's continued interest in perspective and everyday life. In the scene, the observer stands above three workers on hands and knees, scraping a wooden floor in a bourgeois apartment—now believed to be Caillebotte's own studio at 77, rue de Miromesnil, in the 8th arrondissement of Paris. A window on the back wall admits natural light. The workers are all shown with nude torsos and tilted heads, suggesting a conversation. Caillebotte's interest in the male nude, set in a modern context, has been linked to his presumed homosexuality; however, it was part of a larger trend, not necessarily limited to homosexual artists, that was first introduced by Courbet in a painting of two wrestlers. This is one of the first paintings to feature the urban working class. It reintroduces the subject of the male nude in the painting, but in a strikingly updated form. Instead of the heroes of antiquity, here are the heroes of modern life—sinewy and strong—in stooped poses that would appear demeaning if they did not convey a sense of masculine strength and honest labor. There is a motif of curls in the image, from the wood shavings on the floor, to the pattern of ironwork in the window grill to the arched backs and arms of the workers. The repetition in the image, with the three workers engaged in different aspects of the same activity but having similar poses, is similar to works by Caillebotte's contemporary, Edgar Degas.
Paris Street; Rainy Day (1877)
Paris Street; Rainy Day (French: Rue de Paris, temps de pluie) is an Impressionist oil painting completed by French artist Gustave Caillebotte in 1877. Measuring 212.2 by 276.2 cm (83.5 by 108.7 in), it portrays a scene of pedestrians crossing a boulevard intersection in present-day Place de Dublin, a square in the eighth arrondissement of Paris, in rainy weather. It is the best known of Caillebotte's several cityscapes linked to Paris's reconstruction under Napoleon III and Georges-Eugène Haussmann in the mid-19th century, exemplifying the artist's views of modernity.
Caillebotte made a number of preliminary sketches in graphite and oil. The composition shows 24 mostly bourgeois pedestrians, dominated in the foreground by a couple with an umbrella staring outside of the viewer's field of vision. Unusually for an Impressionist painting, Paris Street; Rainy Day takes the form of a photorealistic cityscape, representative of an atomised Paris. Caillebotte employs several visual techniques to create the illusion of three-dimensional space, mainly through linear two-point perspective, colour effects, and repoussoir.
Les Orangers (1878)
Les Orangers (English title: The Orange Trees) is an oil painting by French impressionist Gustave Caillebotte. The canvas measures 155 by 117 centimetres (61 in × 46 in). It was acquired by Audrey Jones Beck and was part of a collection that was on a long-term loan to the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, before the collection was donated to the museum in 1999. The painting now hangs in the museum building named for Beck.
Caillebotte, in common with other impressionist painters of the time, had an affinity for horticulture and was one of the movement's most avid gardeners. While many of his contemporaries preferred more organic and wild settings, Caillebotte preferred manicured, formal arrangements. He trained his fruit trees with careful pruning to encourage compact growth. Critics have suggested that this may have been in keeping with his interest in perspective.
Young Man at His Window (1876)
Young Man at His Window (French: Jeune homme à sa fenêtre) is an 1876 painting by the French Impressionist Gustave Caillebotte (1848–1894). The oil on canvas painting measures 117 by 82 centimetres (46 in × 32 in). It is in the collection of the J. Paul Getty Museum in Los Angeles.
The painting depicts the artist's brother, René Caillebotte, wearing informal clothes and standing at a balcony. He is standing at a window from the family home in the Rue de Miromesnil in Paris, looking outwards into Boulevard Malesherbes (the large, oblique cross-street in the background). It is a comparatively early work in Caillebotte's oeuvre and reveals his interest in urban Realism.
Homme au bain (painting) (1884)
Homme au bain (English title: Man at His Bath) is an 1884 oil painting by French Impressionist Gustave Caillebotte.
The canvas measures 145 by 114 centimetres (57 in × 45 in). It was held by the artist's descendants from the artist's death in 1894 until 1967 and in private collections until June 2011, when it was acquired by the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.
Boating Party (1878)
Boating Party (French: Partie de bateau), also known as The Boating Party (French: La Partie de bateau) or Oarsman In A Top Hat (French: Canotier au chapeau haut de forme), is an oil painting by the French painter Gustave Caillebotte. The painting is from a period in Caillebotte's career when he was producing water-related works due to his extensive boat collection, his enjoyment of rowing, making use of his family's summer home which was close to the Yerres River. The work is noted for its close-up action perspective, which is regarded as unusual for large paintings. Caillebotte first showed the work in the Fourth Impressionist Exhibition in Paris in 1879.
The painting remained in the artist's collection until his death. It remained in Caillebotte's family for the next 128 years, beginning with his brother Martial Caillebotte and passing to Martial's descendants. The work was finally acquired by the Musée d'Orsay in Paris in 2022 and unveiled in 2023. The acquisition was featured in the French Republic's nationwide celebration of the 150th anniversary of Impressionism and was part of both a nationwide and an international exhibition tour which marked the 130th anniversary of Caillebotte's death in 2024. The painting is considered a national treasure of France.
Skiffs (painting) (1877)
Skiffsα (French: Périssoires), also known as Boating on the Yerres, is an oil painting by French impressionist and realist painter Gustave Caillebotte, completed in 1877.
"The three boats — sporty, kayak-like craft — glide on a stream that opens in a wedge shape. The tilt of the riverbank exaggerates the downhill flow of the water. The geometry of the painting, a rough wedge expanding from the top right to the lower left, promotes the sense of downward, leftward flow. The lead boat cuts an arrowhead of light into the shadow cast by the large tree."
A Balcony in Paris (1880)
A Balcony in Paris (French: Un balcon à Paris) is an oil-on-canvas painting executed c. 1880–1881 by the French Impressionist painter Gustave Caillebotte. The dimensions of the painting are 55.2 by 39 centimeters. It is housed in a private collection.
This painting is one of several by Caillebotte in which an urban street, viewed from a balcony, is seen through the spaces of an ornate iron grill in the foreground, differentiating the space of the street from the interior of his bourgeois home, 31 Boulevard Haussmann in Paris. The motif may have been inspired by similar juxtapositions seen in many Japanese ukiyo-e prints.
The Bezique Game (1881)
The Bezique Game (La partie de Bésigue) is an 1880 oil-on-canvas painting by the French impressionist artist Gustave Caillebotte (1848–1894). The work is now in the collection of the Louvre Abu Dhabi.
Eponymously it depicts a Bezique or Bésigue contest; bezique being a 19th-century French melding and trick-taking card game for two players.
Portrait of Richard Gallo (1881)
The Portrait of Richard Gallo is an oil-on-canvas painting by French painter Gustave Caillebotte in the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, Missouri. The painting measures 97 × 116 cm. and dates from 1881, and is part of a series of seven portraits of Richard Gallo, a childhood friend of the artist, composed between 1878 and 1884.
According to Kirk Varnedoe, "This series demonstrates with great artistic coherence how personal contribution of the artist to express an impressionistic point of view on the modern world".