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Unearth the stories of two exceptional masterworks by artist Gustave Caillebotte.
T he year was 1881 when artist Gustave Caillebotte and his brother, Martial, acquired an impressive estate outside of Paris, in the village of Petit Gennevilliers. Across the Seine from Argenteuil, and a stone’s throw from Paris, the picturesque locale was a favored backdrop for the artist’s paintings and photographs from that time onward.
Richard Gallo et son chien Dick, au Petit Gennevilliers, painted in 1884, and on offer in the Impressionist & Modern Art Evening Sale, was one such a scene. A fine synthesis of the Impressionist painting style and the genre of portraiture, Caillebotte captures the image of his beloved friend and subject, Richard Gallo upon the canvas. First appearing in Caillebotte’s oeuvre in four large-scale paintings created as early as 1878, Gallo was the Egyptian-born son of a French banker who settled in Paris in 1869.
Befriending the artist in school, Gallo would go on to become the editor of the newspaper Le Constitutionnel and maintain his friendship with Caillebotte and his brother Martial for years to follow. While little more is known about Gallo, the frequency with which he is portrayed in Caillebotte’s oeuvre stands as a testament to the pair’s lasting friendship.
As Caillebotte’s final portrait of his friend, Richard Gallo et son chien Dick, au Petit Gennevilliers ascends to an apotheosis of expression and artistic freedom in portraiture. Removed from the interior settings of the artist’s earlier works, Gallo here is witnessed mid-stride along the iridescent Seine on a daytime stroll with his canine companion Dick. Behind the pair a riverbank flows peacefully, dotted with bright white buildings reminiscent of the grand Haussmannian edifices of Paris.
Petit Gennevilliers was known as a fashionable boating and leisure destination for city-dwellers looking to escape the noise and grime of the capital, and was represented as such by artists as Monet, Seurat and Renoir throughout the 1870s-80s.
Set along the river Seine, Renoir’s masterwork Luncheon of the Boating Party displays a similar essence of leisure as Richard Gallo et son chien Dick, au Petit Gennevilliers and additionally reflects the circle of artists and intellectuals in Paris in the late 19th century. A great friend of Renoir, Caillebotte is featured prominently at right, sitting backwards on his chair in a straw-brimmed hat as he converses with his peers.
Petit Gennevilliers was not the only haven that Caillebotte uncovered in France. In 1880, Gustave Caillebotte visited Normandy in search of a summer reprieve from Paris and Petit Gennevilliers. After that first visit, Caillebotte returned to the coastal town every summer in subsequent years.
There, the artist sailed, participating in regattas along the Channel, as well as painted, situating himself along the shore to compose beach-side scenes of the deeply hued waters. Falaise en Normandie, on offer in the Impressionist & Modern Art Day Sale, exemplifies his efforts; here, the animated brushwork that illuminates the movement of falling water, in addition to the fleeting weather conditions, exhibit Caillebotte’s Impressionist vision.
