Paris, France —A man rowing a boat in a top hat. Another man seems to dry himself after bathing, more men playing cards this time, or a young man looking out the window. These works are all featured in a monumental exhibition of the works of Gustave Caillebotte currently underway at the Musée d’Orsay in Paris. The show, which commemorates the 130th anniversary of the artist’s death, explores Caillebotte’s predilection for figures and portraits of men and so the exhibition is fittingly entitled Caillebotte: Painting Men.

The show brings together some 140 works including 65 paintings, 29 drawings, 25 photographs and 10 pieces of costumes and accessories. It will travel to the J. Paul Getty Museum and then the Art Institute of Chicago, both of whom have loaned works to the show. While Caillebotte’s contemporaries — among them Manet, Degas, Renoir — were painting dainty dancers, female figures doing girly things and mixed social scenes, some 70% of this Impressionist painter’s works depicted, exclusively and rather realistically, men. Many of the works in the show emanate from private collections and American museums and institutions. While Caillebotte himself bequeathed some of his works to the State as well as his own collection of major works by Sisley, Cézanne, Degas, Monet and Renoir all of whom he supported and which are part of the Musée d’Orsay’s collections.

The exhibition is laid out chronologically and by theme in 10 contiguous exhibition rooms of the Musée d’Orsay. Themes include Gustave and his brothers —the Caillebotte family was an upper middle class family with a mansion in the chic 8th arrondissement of Paris and a beautiful property (restored and open to the public) in the bucolic Parisian suburb of Yerres crossed by a strikingly beautiful small river, the Yerres, and which ran by their house and where Caillebotte painted many of his masterpieces, especially the men-only boating paintings.

In the show one also finds depictions of men at work (the famous Floor Scrapers), men on balconies, men at sports, his brothers who served as his first models. It is all in all a grand celebration of masculinity, a painter’s tribute to guys in general. Caillebotte who was born in Paris in 1848 was himself an upper-middle class painter, enthusiast, sportsman and bachelor and he infused his works with perhaps his own male identity. He sailed on the boats he designed himself and also practiced stamp collecting, naval engineering, regattas and horticulture. But for a very long time he was best known as a generous friend and patron of the arts, notably to the Impressionists. This exhibition is an opportunity to discover the fascinating artist as well as the man himself.

Caillebotte died at the age of 45 in 1894 by what at the time was referred to as cerebral congestion. While nothing is known about his sexuality, he did live with his partner, Charlotte Berthier, a few servants and two sailors, settling in the Parisian suburbs. He and his brother Martial sold the Yerres home to move to the banks of the Seine in Petit-Gennevilliers in the greater Paris region to engage in their passion for yachting. The Caillebotte: Painting Men exhibition is on at the Musée d’Orsay until January 19th before travelling to the J. Paul Getty Museum, from February 25 to May 25, 2025, and to the Art Institute of Chicago from June 29 to October 5, 2025. https://www.musee-orsay.fr/en
https://www.getty.edu/museum/
https://www.artic.edu/

©Trish Valicenti for The Gourmet Gazette