08/19/2026
BORN ON THIS DAY | GUSTAVE CAILLEBOTTE
Born on August 19, 1848, in Paris, Gustave Caillebotte was a French painter, collector, and patron who occupied a distinctive place within the Impressionist movement. His paintings combined the movement’s fascination with modern life and changing light with an unusually precise, almost photographic approach to perspective and composition.
Caillebotte turned his attention to both the rapidly changing streets of Paris and the quieter world of family life, interiors, gardens, and leisure. His unconventional viewpoints and carefully constructed spaces gave his paintings a striking modernity that set him apart from many of his Impressionist contemporaries.
He was also instrumental in supporting the movement itself, financially assisting fellow artists, helping organize Impressionist exhibitions, and assembling an important collection of their work. After his death, part of that collection was accepted by the French state, helping secure Impressionism a place in France’s national collections.
Caillebotte died on February 21, 1894, in Gennevilliers, France, at just 45 years old. Today, he is recognized not only as an important patron of Impressionism, but as an innovative painter in his own right.
PHOTO / PAINTING CAPTIONS
1. Gustave Caillebotte, Self-Portrait, c. 1892
Oil on canvas
1. 5 × 32.5 cm
Musée d’Orsay, Paris
2. Gustave Caillebotte, Young Man at His Window, 1876
Oil on canvas
116 × 81 cm
The J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles
The figure is Caillebotte’s brother, René, looking out from the family’s Paris apartment.
3. Gustave Caillebotte, The Orange Trees (Les Orangers), 1878
Oil on canvas
3. 9 × 116.8 cm
The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston
Depicting Caillebotte’s brother Martial and their cousin Zoé in the garden of the family estate at Yerres.
4. Gustave Caillebotte, Portraits in the Country (Portraits à la campagne), 1876
Oil on canvas
A quiet scene of women gathered outdoors at the Caillebotte family estate in Yerres, reflecting the artist’s intimate observations of domestic and upper-class leisure.
