Paintings by Gustave Caillebotte

With The Floor Scrapers (1875), Gustave Caillebotte joined the Impressionist circle for the second exhibition. He participated in four subsequent exhibitions. His vision was adamantly modern, choosing subjects that preserved glimpses of Parisian life: interiors, views over the rooftops from balconies, strollers on the bridges and avenues, and even workmen finishing a fine wood floor in a new apartment.

Caillebottes sense of light is unmistakable -- even when the subject of his painting is a rainy day as in the Impressionist painting on the next page.

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In Paris Street; Rainy Day (1877), Gustave Caillebotte caught the temperament of modern-day Paris. The broad span of the boulevards, the impressive forms of the apartment blocks, and the elegant composure of the figures appear as urban icons. The effect of the misting rain on a gray day has the credible force of first-hand observation. Critic Émile Zola admired the epic scale of this Impressionist painting and predicted that Gustave Caillebotte would prove to be the boldest innovator in the group.

Gustave Caillebotte also painted the leisurely side of modern life. This next Impressionist painting, Boating on the Yerre, is full of dynamics in spite of its relaxed subject.

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Impressionist painter Gustave Caillebotte loved water sports, and Boating on the Yerres (Perissoires sur l'Yerres) (1877) is a return to his boyhood, when he and his brothers rowed on the Yerres River near their family's country home. After focusing on the street scene for several years, Gustave Caillebotte approached boating scenes for his compositions. He created a sophisticated and subtle tension by painting multiple axes; in this case, the horizon and reflections are countered by the diag­onal paths of the boats.

The difference in color palette between Gustave Caillebotte's country paintings and his depictions of city life is striking. The next Impressionist painting, Le Pont de l'Europe, uses all cool colors.

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In Gustave Caillebotte's Impressionist painting Le Pont de l'Europe (1876), the strong diagonal of the massive iron trusses pulls the viewer's gaze along the pedestrian path, as if joining in the random actions of Parisians out for a stroll. The cool tones of Caillebotte's palette enforce the sense of the city's fabric -- built of stone, iron, and concrete -- even in the light of a mild, sunny day.

Gustave Caillebotte painted Paris in all kinds of different light. In the next Impressionist painting, snow covers up the city's features and reflects the sparse winter light.

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With Rooftops in the Snow, Paris (1878) and 22 other Impressionist paintings, Gustave Caillebotte was well-represented at the fourth Impressionist exhibition. This, his most daring work, provided a view -- perhaps from a balcony or attic window -- across Parisian rooftops covered with snow. For the most part, the rooftops are nondescript, punctuated only by chimney stacks and dormer windows, but the unfolding view, high across the city, has a distinctively urban aesthetic.

The last Impressionist painting by Gustave Caillebotte in this article is an interior in which the artist used mirrors to enhance the sense of space in his composition.

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In a Café (1880) was one of Gustave Caillebotte's contributions to the fifth Impressionist exhibition. Without Caillebotte's financial support, the Impressionist exhibitions might not have happened. In his art, he continued to explore the modern-life subject, often enhancing the sense of immediacy in his compositions by using reflections in mirrors to extend the illusion of space beyond the painting's frame.

For more on Impressionist paintings, artists, and art history, see:

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Debra N. Mancoff, Ph.D., is an art historian and lecturer and the author of numerous books on nineteenth-century European and American paintings. She is a scholar in residence at the Newberry Library and an adjunct associate professor and adjunct lecturer at The School of the Art Institute of Chicago.