A fine artist in his own right, Caillebotte was also a patron of his fellow Impressionists and a collector and donor of significant works.
Born on August 19, 1848, Gustave Caillebotte was the son of a well-to-do French family which had become wealthy through the textile business and real estate. As a young man, Gustave earned an Engineering degree but also studied at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts in Paris.
Through his interest in painting and entry into the contemporary art scene, Caillebotte befriended such other Impressionist masters-in-the-making as Edgar Degas, Pierre Auguste Renoir and Claude Monet. Caillebotte agreed with and incorporated the style of the Impressionists into his work, focusing more on feeling and intensity rather than laboring over detail or rigid perspective.
Perhaps due to his training in Engineering, though, Caillebotte would always be noted as having a more precise style than the other Impressionists, particularly in his depictions of architecture and structures like boats or bridges. As one critic of the era noted, "Caillebotte is an Impressionist in name only. He knows how to draw and paints more seriously than his friends."
Rainy Paris Streets
Caillebotte’s best-known work in his time and even to this day is the vast oil painting Paris Street: Rainy Day, completed in 1877. Beginning in the mid-19th century, Paris had initiated a plan to rebuild the city’s narrow, cramped streets and created wide boulevards to allow for increased pedestrian and carriage traffic. Caillebotte was inspired by the intersection of the new Rue de Turin and the Rue de Moscou, in a neighborhood where Caillebotte himself owned property and another friend, Edouard Manet, had his studio.
Caillebotte’s painting shows the cityscape in immediate focus, with excellent effects of rain-glazed pavement and damp umbrellas. Caillebotte’s realistic notes appealed to conservative art lovers of the day, while his large canvas and unusual perspective intrigued more radical fans. This was to be the peak of Caillebotte’s fame for a while, however.
The Generous Impressionist
Because Caillebotte had been born wealthy, he never had to struggle or starve as an artist. He was fortunate enough to be able to carefully apply himself to his craft and improve his abilities at his own pace. Ironically, however, it is suggested that the lack of financial pressure and the absolute need to sell and exhibit made Caillebotte one of the lesser-known Impressionists – at least until more recent years.
Caillebotte’s wealth allowed him to not only bankroll several Impressionist group exhibits, but throughout his life he would purchase the paintings of his companions to help ease their money troubles. He often paid far more than the work might earn even from a decent sale, because he had received a sizable inheritance and wanted to encourage his friends’ talents.
Legacy
Sadly, Caillebotte died in 1894 at the early age of 45, leaving behind nearly 500 of his own works as well as a splendid collection of Impressionist paintings by Manet, Degas, Monet, Renoir, Paul Cezanne, Alfred Sisley and Camille Pissarro. At first, the French government refused the bequest, persuaded by the official Academy Artists that the Impressionists were "drifts of an unhealthy art." The government later yielded, however, and agreed to take part of the collection. The remaining paintings were purchased by famed collector Dr. Albert Barnes and became part of Philadelphia’s Barnes Foundation Museum.
Many of Caillebotte’s donated works as well as his own are at Paris’s Musée d’Orsay and museums throughout Europe and the United States, most notably the Art Institute of Chicago, which acquired his Paris Street: Rainy Day in 1964 and continues to keep it on showcase display.
Sources
- WebMuseum, Paris – Gustave Caillebotte
- The Art Institute of Chicago: Art Explorer – Caillebotte’s Modern Aesthetic
- The Art Institute of Chicago: Art Access – Gustave Caillebotte
- ThinkQuest: The Impressionist Era – Gustave Caillebotte
- Impressionniste.net: Gustave Caillebotte, Biography
