Gustave Caillebotte

Gustave was 12 years old when the Caillebotte family moved to Yerres. This visit to Yerres proved crucial in his training and his pictorial inspiration. His father, Martial Caillebotte, was a successful business leader who supplied cloth to the armies. From the moment of its acquisition, he proceeded to beautify the park and the Property.

Young Gustave flourished in this green resort. As a teenager, he was particularly sensitive to plant compositions and the winding paths of the park. So many subjects of inspiration that we find in the 80 paintings that he painted within the Property. Resort atmospheres or river leisure activities occupy a large place in his early paintings. Since then, nothing has changed in the park. While walking there, we find the painted places.

Caillebotte also immortalized his loved ones, family or friends who came to spend a few days in Yerres. The characters are captured in the moment: women sewing, man reading, bather in the Yerres, etc. This new style completely breaks with academicism. Caillebotte's works, like those of his contemporaries, are imbued with Realism, sometimes with Japonism, as the attention to detail is felt.

A misunderstood painter like his Impressionist friends, undoubtedly too daring, Caillebotte will not see his “Parquet Planers” exhibited at the official Salon of 1875 in Paris.

The painter also cultivates a passion for boats. In particular, he drew plans for sailboats and subsequently set up a shipyard on the banks of the Argenteuil basin.

Artist, but also patron, Gustave Caillebotte rubbed shoulders with and supported Renoir, Pissaro, Monet. When his brother René died in 1876, he bequeathed to the State a collection of masterpieces by Sisley, Cézanne, Degas, Monet and Renoir.

Upon his own death, in 1894, his friend Renoir and his other brother Martial, carried out his wishes (which he had prepared, traumatized by the premature death of his brother René) by bequeathing works by Gustave to the State. This collection is now visible at the Musée d’Orsay.

Caillebotte's other paintings are today scattered throughout the world.

Gustave Caillebotte became interested in boats very early on: canoeing on the Yerres which borders the family resort, he produced between 1875 and 1878 around twenty paintings on the theme of all kinds of boats, reassuring boats or unstable perishories.

It was in his last residence, at Petit Gennevilliers, on the edge of the Argenteuil basin, that Caillebotte developed his true passion for navigation, drawing 25 plans for boats that he had built at the Luce shipyard, next to his house. He adds to his many activities that of a naval architect; because Caillebotte also races on his boats (he owns up to 14) and often wins races, with Dahut or Roastbeef, his favorite. The races take place on the Seine, but also on the Normandy coast, a region dear to his parents.

In 1880, Gustave Caillebotte became vice-president of the Cercle de la Voile de Paris, the then authority on yachting: he campaigned in favor of this sport and helped it progress to the highest level, moving from the architect's table to bar. If it is sometimes claimed that Caillebotte abandoned painting in the last part of his life, he did not forget to paint in his paintings the atmosphere of regattas, a favorite theme of painters and writers of his time.

Gustave Caillebotte found himself at the heart of the artistic revolution which shook consciences during the time of the Third Republic, which followed the events of 1870 (Franco-Prussian War and Paris Commune).

The emergence of Impressionist painters and the disdain they received have remained in the history of art as important milestones in the understanding of modernity in art.

These painters had their detractors: critics and members of the Beaux-Arts did not accept this new way of painting. Gustave Caillebotte, through his financial means and his clairvoyance, had the courage to oppose these opposing currents. For this, he was the man “to be killed”, himself becoming the subject of nasty caricatures in a certain press (Charivari).

But these painters also had their defenders, notably from the world of writers and poets. First Zola, as a critic, made some reproaches to Caillebotte, before recognizing his true qualities as a painter.

The writer Joris Karl Huysmans always supported Caillebotte’s art. He wrote in 1882 in the journal Modern Art: “Although literary and artistic injustices no longer have the gift of moving me, I remain, despite myself, surprised by the persistent silence that the press keeps towards such a painter. »

Furthermore, Caillebotte organizes or participates in impressionist dinners, which are held in the great Parisian cafés, where artists and writers meet: we discuss art, philosophy, politics...At the Café Riche, at the Café Guerbois, often Gustave Caillebotte pays the bill for all the guests.

Gustave Caillebotte painter, long erased by his role as collector and patron of the Impressionists (he collected their works and also paid the rent for Monet's painting studios), has been recognized by the public for several years.

After his death in 1894, his work remained in the shadows, while new artistic movements developed during the 20th century.

From the retrospective exhibition in 1994, at the Grand Palais in Paris, important international exhibitions, in Chicago in 1995, in Lausanne in 2005, in Bremen in 2008, at the Jacquemart André Museum in Paris in 2011, in Frankfurt at the Schirn Kunsthalle in 2012, then in The Hague and at the Bridgestone Museum in Tokyo, Japan in 2013, constitute important contributions to the knowledge of the pictorial work of Gustave Caillebotte.

In 2014, the exhibition at the Ferme Ornée of the Caillebotte Property presented the works painted in Yerres together for the first time.

During his lifetime, Caillebotte exhibited with his friends, even if his financial comfort spared him the worry of selling. Over the years, as he embraced the cause of his Impressionist friends, he faded into the background as a painter. He does not consider himself equal to others. However, Huysmans wrote in 1882: “(…) he seems to have finally managed to get by with the eye which is, in its normal state, one of the most precise and most original. This one is a great painter, a painter whose certain paintings will hold their place alongside the best. »

Since 1995, the town of Yerres has restored and maintained the property where the painter created more than 80 paintings.
Exhibitions and events evoke the memory of Caillebotte all year round.

Gustave Caillebotte's notoriety as a painter began in the United States, where 25 museums now hold works: the very famous “Rue de Paris, temps de rain” (Chicago Institute of Art), “Les Orangers” (Houston Museum of fine arts) and the paintings entitled “Périssoires” (Milwaukee Art Museum and National Gallery of Art, Washington DC), the latter having been produced in Yerres in the family park and on the river. Only 12 French museums keep paintings by Caillebotte.

Caillebotte's international fame is due first of all to the fact that in 1886, the dealer Durand-Ruel organized an exhibition in New York of "Oil and pastel works of the Paris Impressionists" where he included around ten paintings by Caillebotte.

Furthermore, Caillebotte's brother, Martial, maintained contacts with several dealers from 1897, such as Durand-Ruel, Ambroise Vollard and others: several paintings by Caillebotte were thus sold. Quite quickly after his death in 1894, his pictorial work was dispersed. The death of Martial in 1910 interrupted this movement.

Finally, at the beginning of the 20th century, Americans played a significant role on the art market: the presence of American painters in Giverny alongside Monet created a connection between the United States and France.

Caillebotte is well known as a collector of paintings.

From 1874, having become a wealthy heir, he purchased paintings from the painters Monet, Renoir, Degas: the primary aim of these purchases was to help these painters rejected by critics and shunned by the public. Caillebotte declares: “No one wants it, I buy it. »

He became one of the most fervent supporters of independent painters; he plays the role of artistic agent for the exhibitions organized on the sidelines of the official Salon. His clairvoyance and generosity were fully expressed in his life, marked by his will of 1876 which announced the bequest to the State of his collection.

Caillebotte and his brother Martial patiently assembled a collection of stamps, going so far as to develop a classification method: in 1887 they sold their collection to the English philatelist Mr. Tapling, for a sum which in 2011 would be around 5 million euros. The latter bequeathed the whole to the British Museum. The Caillebotte brothers are recognized in Great Britain as the fathers of philately!

It is customary to associate Gustave Caillebotte's interest in the garden with stays on the Yerres property. Indeed, from 1860, his father significantly enlarged the utility gardens located at the west end of the lawn. The surface area is approximately doubled and increased to 5,500 m2. Five gardeners are then employed for the general maintenance of the entire property. The young man, with a curious and enthusiastic character, undoubtedly participated in professional activity at a very young age. Later, he produced several important paintings, such as “The Gardeners”, in the context of the vegetable garden; it once again demonstrates the artist's concern to translate daily life and its utilitarian functions into painting.

In the Caillebotte library, there is the “Complete Gardener’s Manual” by Louis Noisette, a scholarly work published in 1835.

Later, when he is at home, at Petit Gennevilliers, Gustave Caillebotte will have his garden and his orchid greenhouse. His interest in plants is confirmed by numerous written testimonies and correspondence. He shares with his friend Claude Monet a passion for horticulture and rare plants (poppies, orchids). Caillebotte went to Giverny several times to discuss gardens and flowers (he was also the witness to his second marriage to Alice Raingo-Hoschedé in 1892), who owned a house in Montgeron, a town adjoining Yerres.

This passion is reflected in very beautiful paintings of flowers which sit alongside the paintings of the boats for which he designed the plans himself.

In Yerres, his pictorial production took place mainly between the years 1873 and 1878, after Caillebotte, already having a degree in law, chose to devote himself to painting. It includes more than 80 paintings made in the park, mainly including oils on canvas and a few pastels; his work also includes preparatory drawings. He created a few other paintings in and around the village.

He mainly develops 3 themes :

• landscapes in the park: in the ornamental garden, richly planted with trees and maintained by 5 gardeners, he creates paintings treated in a fairly classic style; but Caillebotte works on luminous and colorful effects, on the play of tree trunks, in a way reminiscent of Japonism. Some paintings created in the vegetable garden are imbued with naturalistic atmospheres.
• portraits of families, children, friends: summers in the countryside welcome families and friends, for rest and relaxation.
• leisure scenes in the context of the river: nearly 25 paintings have the themes of nautical activities, boating and perissories, swimming or fishing.

A few interior scenes complete this production.

The painter develops a very personal and original style.

Art historians recognize in Gustave Caillebotte an art different from the manners most often attributed to the Impressionists: Caillebotte does not seek to work with the rapid, instantaneous touch of the leaders Monet or Renoir, influenced by the theories of Chevreul on complementary colors and divided tones. He tried it in the works of his last period, such as certain landscapes from the Gennevilliers region.

However, Caillebotte, through the choice of realistic themes and open-air atmospheres, joins the Impressionists: he puts a very personal touch into his paintings through a skilful use of perspective and framing, a technique which is found in most of his paintings. great Parisian compositions.

His paintings are compared to a photograph of reality, but Caillebotte brings effects (plays of light, etc.) and a staging that belong only to him.

His technique is a patient construction: for his large compositions he uses preparatory drawings, works with tracing paper, makes sketches.

Most of his work, described in the 2nd catalog raisonné of Marie Berhaut (Ed. Wildenstein 1994), is composed of oils on canvas and a few pastels.

The painting

In oil painting, Caillebotte commonly uses medium-sized formats (around 50 x 60 cm).

The largest formats are: “Rue de Paris, rainy weather” (212.2 x 276.2 cm), “The Bridge of Europe” (124.7 x 180.6 cm) and “Les Raboteurs de parquet » (102 x 145 cm).

These three paintings were the subject of numerous preparatory drawings and variants or sketches.

The drawing

The vast majority of his drawings make it possible to prepare large-scale works. Caillebotte himself says that he works patiently on the creation of his paintings. He uses layers which allow him to study his composition as a director would do when placing his actors.

Caillebotte, although much criticized like the other painters of the movement, was recognized for his science of drawing and arrangement. In addition, sketchbooks and studies in pencil or charcoal have been exhibited on numerous occasions, showing Caillebotte's very elaborate manner.

The pastel

Caillebotte showed a real interest in pastels. He produced more than twenty, dated from 1873 to 1880. We remember that he had collected 8 pastels by Degas, all of which were accepted by the State at the time of the bequest.

It was in the Yerres park that in 1877 he created ten pastels: “Portrait of a Child”, “The Siesta”, “Wall of the Vegetable Garden”, “Prairie à Yerres”, etc.

In the pastels, Caillebotte uses blue, the frequent use of which was criticized, even by its most ardent defenders, such as Huysmans who stated in 1883, regarding the pastel representing Camille Daurelle in the park of Yerres: “(…) and passing in front of a small sign “A Child in a Garden”, where the sin of the terrible blue has been committed again (…). »