Half Impressionist, Half Realist - Gustave Caillebotte

Gustave Caillebotte was born in 1848 in Paris, in a luxurious mansion on the rue du Faubourg-Saint-Denis, in a family of high-bourgeois extraction. Caillebotte's childhood was quiet and comfortable: not affected by economic worries he spent the summers in the family estate in Yerres, a village south of Paris where he matured a passion for rowing and where he has also begun to take an interest in the Fine Arts. Caillebotte, therefore, at the beginning drew and painted for pure delight. In fact, his dream was to become a lawyer. He enrolled at the Louis-le-Grand high school in Vanves in 1857, and obtained his law degree in 1869.

'' Rue Halévy, vue d'un sixième étage '', oil on canvas , Image Source

'' Young Man at His Window '', oil on canvas , Image Source

After the Franco-Prussian war Caillebotte renounced his juridic ambitions and began to follow his most authentic dreams, becoming in a short time a naval engineer, horticulturist, and above all a painter.
His training was strictly academic: he approached the lessons of Léon Bonnat, teacher at the École des beaux-arts from whom he learned the first rudiments of painting and drawing.
Despite the impressionist commitment, Caillebotte interpreted the style of the movement in an absolutely personal way, without abdicating his own training and obeying his sensitivity above all. In fact, at the fleeting and unrepeatable poetic moment , caught in a single blink of an eye, he preferred the solid constructiveness of the drawing. In open contrast with the Impressionist approach he was usually meditating a long time on the compositions, sometimes creating different preparatory sketches. The originality of Caillebotte, therefore, lies precisely in the admirable balance with which he managed to merge its declared academic matrix with the cues of modernity, intelligently weighed and employed. It is not surprising, therefore, that the style of Caillebotte is not entirely impressionist, but also presents academic and realist elements.

'' The Floor Scrapers '', a controversial realist subject , oil on canvas , Musée d'Orsay , Image Source

'' Les Périssoires '', oil on canvas , Image Source

'' Boulevard des Italiens '', oil on canvas , Image Source

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