Gustave Caillebotte

Etretat – The Artists – Caillebotte, Gustave

This page forms part of a series of pages dedicated to the many artists who worked in Etretat. A full list of all the artists with a link to their works can be found at the bottom of this page.

Gustave Caillebotte
Gustave Caillebotte

Movement(s): Impressionism, Realism

Gustave Caillebotte (1848 – 1894) was a French painter who was a member and patron of the Impressionists, although he painted in a more realistic manner than many others in the group. Caillebotte was known for his early interest in photography as an art form.

Gustave Caillebotte was born to an upper-class Parisian family living in the rue du Faubourg-Saint-Denis. His father, Martial Caillebotte, was the inheritor of the family’s military textile business and was also a judge at the Tribunal de commerce de la Seine. Caillebotte’s father was twice widowed before marrying Caillebotte’s mother, Celeste Daufresne, who had two more sons after Gustave: Rene and Martial.

Caillebotte earned a law degree in 1868 and a license to practice law in 1870, and he also was an engineer. Shortly after his education, he was drafted to fight in the Franco-Prussian war, and served from July 1870 to March 1871 in the Garde Nationale Mobile de la Seine.

After the war, Caillebotte began visiting the studio of painter Leon Bonnat, where he began to study painting seriously. He developed an accomplished style in a relatively short time and had his first studio in his parents’ home. In 1873, Caillebotte entered the Ecole des Beaux-Arts, but apparently did not spend much time there. He inherited his father’s fortune in 1874 and the surviving sons divided the family fortune after their mother’s death in 1878. Gustave and his brother sold the Yerres estate and moved into an apartment in the Boulevard Haussmann in Paris.

In common with his precursors Jean-Francois Millet and Gustave Courbet, as well his contemporary Degas, Caillebotte aimed to paint reality as it existed and as he saw it, hoping to reduce the inherent theatricality of painting. Perhaps because of his close relationship with so many of his peers, his style and technique vary considerably among his works, as if “borrowing” and experimenting, but not really sticking to any one style. At times, he seems very much in the Degas camp of rich-colored realism (especially his interior scenes); at other times, he shares the Impressionist commitment to “optical truth” and employs an impressionistic pastel-softness and loose brush strokes most similar to Renoir and Camille Pissarro, although with a less vibrant palette.

Click here to read Caillebotte’s full bio on Wikipedia.

NOTE: Click on the image below for a bigger version (no new window will open).

1884 - Gustave Caillebotte - Father Magloire on the road to Saint-Clair, Etretat
1884 – Gustave Caillebotte – Father Magloire on the road to Saint-Clair, Etretat

NOTE: Father Magloire (Pere Magloire) is a famous Calvados brand who used a, for-that-time, a very aggressive publicity campaign.

Saint-Claire is a village located next to Etretat towards the North.

Here are the places we have found where Caillebotte painted in France (a link “⇠” will appear next to a place when we have published his works for that particular place);

Etretat is the second most popular and visited place in Normandy (the first being Mont Saint-Michel). And since it was popular, many artists came here to be inspired by its nature and scenic environments. Here is a list of artists who worked in Etretat (a link “⇠” to their work will appear when published).

NOTE: You can subscribe to our new articles by entering your email address in the box on the right column (or at the very bottom of this article) and clicking on the button “Subscribe”.

You will need to check your incoming emails and validate your subscription. If you can’t see an email from us, check your Spam folder. Without validating your email address, you will not get notifications from us. WE WILL NEVER GIVE YOUR EMAIL ADDRESSES TO ANYONE!

Related Posts

  • 88
    Etretat – The Artists – Corot, Jean-Baptiste CamilleJean-Baptiste Camille Corot was a French painter of the Realism movement. He travelled extensively between France and Italy. Although he did paint in a few cities in Normandy, most of his works centers around Italy. Here are some of his works he painted in Etretat, Normandy.
  • 88
    Etretat – The Artists – Courbet, GustaveJean Desire Gustave Courbet (1819 – 1877) was a French painter who led the Realism movement in 19th-century French painting. Committed to painting only what he could see, he rejected academic convention and the Romanticism of the previous generation of visual artists. Courbet, a socialist, was active in the political…
  • 88
    Etretat – The Artists – de Saint-Delis, ReneRene de Saint-Delis, 1876 - 1958, was a French painter influenced by the Impressionist movement. He was born in the North of France (Pas-de-Calais) and died in Etretat, Normandy. Here are his paintings he made in Etretat, Normandy.
  • 87
    Etretat – The Artists – Boudin, Eugene-LouisEugene Boudin is a real Normandy based artist, born and died in Normandy. He was an Impressionist painter and a close friend of Claude Monet. He was the son of a harbour pilot who later went on and set up a picture framing and stationery shop. His son took to…
  • 84
    Deauville – The Artists – Caillebotte, GustaveGustave Caillebotte (1848 – 1894) was a French painter who was a member and patron of the Impressionists, although he painted in a more realistic manner than many others in the group. Caillebotte was known for his early interest in photography as an art form. Caillebotte earned a law degree…
Scroll to Top