mheu, Historical Museum of the Urban Environment

The artist

Born in 1848 in Paris, Gustave Caillebotte studied law for a time before enrolling at the Beaux-arts School of Fine Arts. The sizeable fortune he inherited on the death of his father allowed him to devote himself entirely to painting and to support his artist friends. His work featured fresh themes, as seen in one of his first paintings, "Workmen Planing the Floor," rejected at the Salon because of its subject matter. The same attitude would hinder his official recognition in France: though he left all his works to the French government, public officials were reluctant to accept them, calling them "an offense to dignity." The artist was rediscovered in the 1970s in the United States. Caillebotte was, in fact, admired in America during his lifetime, and inspired such painters of everyday life as Edward Hopper. A man of many interests, Gustave Caillebotte was also a stamp collector, horticulturalist and naval architect.