Who Was Caillebotte?

Years ago, Yvonne and I had the special treat of going to see a major art exhibit, “The New Painting: Impressionism 1874-1886,” with our good friends the Starbirds. We flew from our homes in Pasadena to the de Young Museum in San Francisco and walked into nineteenth-century Paris.

The Impressionists were all there: Monet, Cezanne, Degas, Renoir, Manet, and others. But as we turned a corner, we were faced with an unfamiliar image, “The Floor Scrapers,” showing three shirtless men working on a wooden floor. The painting was by someone named Gustave Caillebotte, whom we had never heard of. 

We read about Caillebotte at the exhibit and afterward, and were fascinated to learn about his life. He was a wealthy friend of the Impressionists, and in fact he supported many of them financially through tough times. But during that whole period, he did paintings (including this self-portrait). Perhaps he was shy, because he seemed to spend more time and money on others’ work than on his own.   

Over the years, we looked for paintings by Caillebotte and found a limited number, some of them quite wonderful. Then came the breakthrough: a full-fledged Caillebotte exhibit at the Getty Museum in Los Angeles and then at the Art Institute of Chicago. We were thrilled to learn that the Chicago exhibit would be during a time when we would visit our daughter Maggie.

We went last week, and the exhibit was just great: “Gustave Caillebotte: Painting His World.” We encountered our old friend “The Floor Scrapers,” along with a giant painting “Paris Street: Rainy Day” (shown here) that is often displayed at the Art Institute; and about 120 other paintings, many of which we had never seen.    

What a treat—an entirely new world with Caillebotte at the center.