Gustave Caillebotte: Artist and Benefactor

Gustave Caillebotte’s carefully drawn works of art are sometimes classified as outside the mainstream Impressionist style. However, his donation of a vast collection of Impressionist paintings ultimately helped the nineteenth-century art movement gain public recognition.

Born into a wealthy Parisian upper-class family in 1848, Gustave Caillebotte obtained a law degree in 1868 and subsequently served as a soldier in the Franco-German War from 1870 to 1871. A passionate painter, he joined the prestigious Parisian École des Beaux-Arts in 1873, where he met kindred spirits such as Edgar Degas and Pierre-Auguste Renoir, mesmerized by their innovative spirit and vision.

In 1875, he submitted his piece “The Floor Scrapers,” depicting three shirtless workers planing a floor, to the jury of the reputed Salon de Paris, the official art show organized by the Académie des Beaux-Arts. The unconventional work was rejected, but his Impressionist friends Renoir and Degas adored it and hence strongly encouraged him to exhibit together with them. He thus officially joined the group of Impressionists in 1876 and regularly participated in their exhibitions over the following years.

Caillebotte primarily chose places and people in and around Paris as main themes of his works. Featuring modern subjects and unusual perspectives, his paintings explicitly showed the ongoing transformation of the French capital into a modern metropolis. Having inherited a vast fortune from his father, Caillebotte established himself as a vital financial supporter of the Impressionist exhibitions. He became a major patron, building a private collection of roughly 500 Impressionist paintings. However, he did not sell his own paintings, and for that reason, only several entered into public collections.

Caillebotte died in 1894 at the young age of 46. He bequeathed a part of his Impressionist masterpiece collection, including two of his own works, to the French state, which became the basis for public collections of Impressionist paintings in French national museums. Caillebotte’s donation of his comprehensive collection ultimately helped Impressionism gain recognition from the public.

Recognized as the creator of several iconic pieces, in particular “Paris Street; Rainy Day” and “The Europe Bridge,” Caillebotte is nonetheless often given more credit as a collector, benefactor, and supporter of the Impressionists than as an Impressionist painter in his own right. His carefully drawn paintings are sometimes classified as outside the “mainstream” Impressionist style.

Caillebotte Today

Compared to other French Impressionists, Caillebotte remains relatively unknown until today. This circumstance mainly stems from the fact that the artist, unlike his fellow painters, did not sell his own works; consequently, they rarely came into circulation. However, in 2019, his piece “Chemin Montant” auctioned for $19.1 million at Christie’s in London, an all-time auction high for a Caillebotte work.