Gustave Caillebotte Oil Painting Reproduction Art Hand Painted Museum Quality Canvas

Gustave Caillebotte (August 19, 1848 - February 21, 1894), was a French painter, member and patron of the group of artists known as Impressionists, though he painted in a much more realistic manner than many other artists in the group. Gustave Caillebotte was noted for his early interest in photography as an artform. Gustave Caillebotte is best known for Caillebotte paintings of urban Paris, such as The Bridge 'De l'Europe' (Le pont de l'Europe) (1876), and Paris Street; Rainy Day (Rue de Paris; temps de pluie, also known as La Place de l'Europe, temps de pluie) (1877).

Gustave Caillebotte was born August 19, 1848, in Paris, to Céleste Daufresne and Martial Caillebotte, an entrepreneur who accumulated his fortune in textiles and real estate. Gustave earned a law degree in 1868 and a license to practice two years later. Before he could get started in his career, he was drafted to fight in the Franco-Prussian war, and served in the Garde Nationale Mobile de la Seine. Caillebotte paintings depicted family members and friends, as in ‘Young Man at His Window’ (1875), Portraits in the Country (1875), and The Orange Trees (1878).

After the war, Gustave Caillebotte began visiting the studio of painter Léon Bonnat, where he further developed his passion for Gustave Caillebotte oil painting. In 1873, he entered into the École des Beaux-Arts; there he was introduced to Edgar Degas and Giuseppe de Nittis. That same year his father died and left him a great fortune. This sudden wealth afforded him the luxury to paint for leisure and support his talent rather than have his talent support him. Known for his generosity, he became a great patron of other impressionist artists by purchasing their art and funding exhibitions. While he was more than willing to help his peers, he also had a remarkable eye for quality, and thereby amassed a significant collection of paintings art during his lifetime. He used his wealth to fund a variety of hobbies for which he was quite passionate, including stamp collecting, orchid horticulture, yacht building, and textile design.

On February 21, 1894, at the age of forty-five, Gustave Caillebotte died suddenly of a stroke and bequeathed his entire art collection of Cézannes, Degas, Manets, Monets, Passers, Renoirs, and Sisleys to the France government with the stipulation that they hang in the Musee du Luxembourg first and then in the Louvre. With considerable reluctance, the government accepted part of the collection two years later. Today forty works from his collection hang in the Musee d'Orsay.