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Gustave
Caillebotte was born in 1848 to a wealthy family who had made their
money in textiles and real estate during the redevelopment of Paris
in the 1860s.
In
1875, he submitted a painting to the Salon jury, which rejected
it. That work was probably the Floorscrapers, which Caillebotte
then decided to exhibit in a more hospitable environment, that of
the second Impressionist group exhibition of 1876. His work, highly
acclaimed, stole the show and helped to make the next exhibition
far more popular.
Wealthy
and generous, Caillebotte financially supported his Impressionist
friends by purchasing their works at high prices and underwriting
many of the expenses for the exhibitions.
Caillebotte
was a painter of great originality. Like the Impressionists, Caillebotte
pursued an instant of vision, recording it with detail. Caillebotte
attempted to portray the rhythms of an industrial society with regimented
figures and the detailed precision of his Paris. In this aspect,
he was very much like the Realists.
In
1876 he drew up a will providing money for an Impressionist exhibition
to be held after his death, and bequeathing his collection of Impressionist
paintings to the State. This bequest was made on the condition that
the paintings should first be exhibited in the Luxembourg (the museum
dedicated to the work of living artists), and later to the Louvre.
He intended that the State should not hide the paintings away in
an attic.
Later
in life, he became less interested in art, giving it up almost entirely
to pursue his interests in gardening and yachting. However, his
collections of Impressionist paintings were donated to the state
upon his death, and now form part of the Impressionist collection
of present-day France.
Gustave
Caillebotte died in 1894.
Works
by Gustave Caillebotte featured on this website:
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