Between Realism and Impressionism: On Gustave Caillebotte

2/13/2019 Between Realism and Impressionism: On Gustave Caillebotte by Marnin Young | Yale University Press Blog

http://blog.yalebooks.com/2015/07/21/between-realism-and-impressionism-on-gustave-caillebotte-by-marnin-young/ 1/17

(https://i1.wp.com/blog.yalebooks.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/marnin-young-featured-image.jpg?fit=1253%2C608)

Between Realism and Impressionism:

On Gustave Caillebotte by Marnin

Young

July 21, 2015

in Art & Architecture(http://blog.yalebooks.com/category/art-architecture/)

0

Gustave Caillebotte has always occupied a divided place in thehistory of art. Although he exhibited almost exclusively at theImpressionist exhibits in the late 1870s and early 1880s, hewas marginalized early on as “an Impressionist in name only.”In the century that followed, his art was all but forgotten, evenas his art collection came to form the core of what is now theMusée d’Orsay. Since his revival in the 1970s, Caillebotte’s

:

(http://blog.yalebooks

2/13/2019 Between Realism and Impressionism: On Gustave Caillebotte by Marnin Young | Yale University Press Blog

http://blog.yalebooks.com/2015/07/21/between-realism-and-impressionism-on-gustave-caillebotte-by-marnin-young/ 2/17

(https://i0.wp.com/artbooks.yupnet.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/13/2015/07/yIeDpPOdT5ZSex1CSXwB31S

eVkcKw-R18Dcpj0U0ozdoW974emvxo1dHtBLeVM2BY.jpg)

paintings have entered the canon of nineteenth-century art,occasioning extensive commentary by scholars of all stripes.Yet opinion remains split about his artistic accomplishment.

A majorexhibition,GustaveCaillebotte: ThePainter’s Eye

(http://www.nga.gov/content/ngaweb/exhibitions/2015/gustave-caillebotte.html), now at the National Gallery in WashingtonD.C. (http://www.nga.gov/content/ngaweb.html), beforemoving to the Kimbell Art Museum in Fort Worth(https://www.kimbellart.org/), might just give the public amuch-needed opportunity to reassess the artist’s career. Forthe first time in twenty years, famous pictures such as the1875 Floor Scrapers from the Musée d’Orsay(http://www.musee-orsay.fr/en/home.html) and the 1877 ParisStreet, Rainy Day from the Art Institute of Chicago(http://www.artic.edu/) can be seen next to each other, andalongside stunning early works from private collections. Laterportraits, still lives, and landscapes, including the 1886 Roses,Garden at Petit Gennevilliers, also fill the galleries, and for theuninitiated, the differences between early and late Caillebottewill be confounding. In his otherwise glowing review of theexhibit(http://www.nytimes.com/2015/07/10/arts/design/review-paris-is-reborn-in-gustave-caillebotte-the-painters-eye.html?_r=0), Holland Cotter no doubt speaks the consensus view:“Caillebotte’s work is uneven over all.” To say there is a drop inartistic quality and intensity in the 1880s is perhaps tooreductive, but there is a notable difference in both style and

Gustave

Caillebotte, The Floor Scrapers, 1875; oil on canvas;

overall: 102 147 cm (40 3/16 57 7/8 in.) Musée

d’Orsay, Paris, Gift of Caillebotte’s heirs through the

intermediary of Auguste Renoir, 1894

2/13/2019 Between Realism and Impressionism: On Gustave Caillebotte by Marnin Young | Yale University Press Blog

http://blog.yalebooks.com/2015/07/21/between-realism-and-impressionism-on-gustave-caillebotte-by-marnin-young/ 3/17

subject matter between early and late Caillebotte. This divisionin the artist’s career has puzzled viewers from early on, and ithas typically been explained as an attempt to bring his own

painting in

(https://i1.wp.com/artbooks.yupnet.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/13/2015/07/9780300208320.jpg)linewith the Impressionist techniques he had come to championand collect. This is no doubt true, but as I show in my book,Realism in the Age of Impressionism: Painting and the Politicsof Time (http://yalebooks.com/yupbooks/book.asp?isbn=9780300208320), there is much more at stake in thisdivision within Caillebotte’s artistic career.

Caillebotte’s art cannot be fully comprehended unless he isplaced within his generation, a generation of painters bornaround 1848 and still oriented to the mid-century Realismwhich dominated French art during their youth. In addition toacademic realists like Jean Béraud and Giuseppe de Nittis, bothof whom were close to Caillebotte in the early 1870s, this“later Realist” group of painters can be said to include suchdisparate figures as Jules Bastien-Lepage, Alfred-Philippe Roll,Jean-François Raffaëlli, and even younger artists like theBelgian James Ensor in his earliest phase. These paintersconsistently pursued a revival of mid-century practices ofpainting, notably an emphasis on durational temporalities thatsat in tension with Impressionist instantaneousness.

Caillebotte’s early pictures consist of carefully-observed,meticulously-rendered paintings that invite extended viewing,even if their motifs might imply a passing moment. Shown atthe Impressionist exhibit of 1876, The Floor Scrapers is inalmost all respects a painting that Gustave Courbet could havedone. It is fairly clearly an homage to the older Realist’s

2/13/2019 Between Realism and Impressionism: On Gustave Caillebotte by Marnin Young | Yale University Press Blog

http://blog.yalebooks.com/2015/07/21/between-realism-and-impressionism-on-gustave-caillebotte-by-marnin-young/ 4/17

(https://i0.wp.com/artbooks.yupnet.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/13/2015/07/F521ZJWgswB1G6qFTQsTCsI

Wr7EAI7M2Zk.jpg)

(https://i2.wp.com/artbooks.yupnet.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/13/2015/07/8RtyNqXTVHW_w2Rq71DkMi7WekTiqRKf0BM9JF

Stonebreakers,not least in thesuggestion ofthe ongoingrepetitiveactions ofmanual labor.For reasons thatare political innature—Courbetwas in politicalexile for hisinvolvement intherevolutionaryParis Communeof 1871—criticslargely avoidedthis comparison.For some, likeÉmile Zola, themore obvious reference was photography. In 1877, PaulSébillot agreed, claiming that Paris Street, Rainy Day, “givesan idea of what photography will be like when the means havebeen found to reproduce the intensity and delicacy of color.”Mario Proth went even further to assert that Caillebotte neededlittle else for his works to “resemble instantaneousphotographs, photochromes playing rather skillfully atpainting.” In fact, such claims constitute only one part of awidespread discussion about photography, painting, and timein the 1870s. This discourse immediately affected the artisticdevelopments and critical understandings of all the later Realistpainters, but none so much as Caillebotte.

In 1878,Caillebotte waspushed toabandon theequation of hispainting withphotography,and in turnRealism, toembrace morefully thetransient effectsof light in

Gustave Caillebotte, Paris

Street, Rainy Day, 1877; oil on canvas; overall: 212.2

276.2 cm (83 9/16 108 3/4 in.); The Art Institute of

Chicago, Charles H. and Mary F. S. Worcester

Collection

2/13/2019 Between Realism and Impressionism: On Gustave Caillebotte by Marnin Young | Yale University Press Blog

http://blog.yalebooks.com/2015/07/21/between-realism-and-impressionism-on-gustave-caillebotte-by-marnin-young/ 5/17

Gpw9P06nrfE9hl44toucnnIARqvXYMtaem0azYdLWHNcUy6OXTSihUYJcrKDJpKD9C6JfImpressionism.More thananything, theconceptualpossibility ofinstantaneousphotography—

even before it was publicly confirmed when EadweardMuybridge’s split-second exposures appeared in late 1878—made it difficult if not impossible to maintain Realism’stemporal concern with duration and repetition. Soon enough,paintings built out of careful observation and detailed renderingbegan to read almost exclusively as instantly-capturedphotographs. Some painters committed to a slowly-craftedRealism turned increasingly to motifs that could evade this shift—Roll’s 1880 Strike of the Miners and Raffaëlli’s 1881 AbsintheDrinkers are two key examples—but others, like de Nittis andBéraud, embraced it under the sign of Naturalism.

Caillebotte’s stylistic shift did not take place in isolation. Norwas it the result simply of his personal predilection for the artof his friends. His crisis, and the peculiar strategies theyproduced in his art after 1878, was in fact quite typical of hisentire generation. A closer examination of the artisticdevelopment of this Realist who became an Impressionistnonetheless reveals much about the emergence of temporality,both durational and instantaneous, as a central stylistic motifin the art of the late nineteenth century.

Marnin Young is associate professor of art history at SternCollege for Women, Yeshiva University.

Caillebotte, Roses, Garden at Petit Gennevilliers,

1886; oil on canvas; overall: 89 116 cm (35 1/16 45

11/16 in.); Private Collection; © Comité Caillebotte,

Paris

Marnin Young: Realism in the Age of ImpressMarnin Young: Realism in the Age of ImpressMarnin Young: Realism in the Age of Impress………

2/13/2019 Between Realism and Impressionism: On Gustave Caillebotte by Marnin Young | Yale University Press Blog

http://blog.yalebooks.com/2015/07/21/between-realism-and-impressionism-on-gustave-caillebotte-by-marnin-young/ 6/17

Tags: Caillebotte (http://blog.yalebooks.com/tag/caillebotte/), D.C.(http://blog.yalebooks.com/tag/d-c/), Gustave Caillebotte

(http://blog.yalebooks.com/tag/gustave-caillebotte/), Marnin Young(http://blog.yalebooks.com/tag/marnin-young/), national gallery of art(http://blog.yalebooks.com/tag/national-gallery-of-art/), Paris Street

(http://blog.yalebooks.com/tag/paris-street/), Rainy Day(http://blog.yalebooks.com/tag/rainy-day/), The Floor Scrapers

(http://blog.yalebooks.com/tag/the-floor-scrapers/), Washington(http://blog.yalebooks.com/tag/washington/)

Share the post

(http://www.facebook.com/sharer.php?u=http://blog.yalebooks.com/2015/07/21/brealism-and-impressionism-

(https://twitter.com/intent/tweet?original_referer=http://blog.yalebookrealism-and-impressionism-on-

gustave-caillebotte-by-

marnin-young/&text=BetweenRealismand

Impressionism:On

GustaveCaillebotte

(//pinterest.com/pin/create/buurl=http://blog.yalebooks.comrealism-and-impressionism-on-

gustave-caillebotte-by-

marnin-

2/13/2019 Between Realism and Impressionism: On Gustave Caillebotte by Marnin Young | Yale University Press Blog

http://blog.yalebooks.com/2015/07/21/between-realism-and-impressionism-on-gustave-caillebotte-by-marnin-young/ 7/17

pon-

gustave-caillebotte-by-

marnin-young/&t=BetweenRealismand

Impressionism:On

GustaveCaillebotte

byMarninYoung)

byMarninYoung&tw_p=tweetbutton&url=http:/realism-and-impressionism-on-

gustave-caillebotte-by-

marnin-young/&via=YaleUniversityPressBlog)

young/&media=https://i1.wp.content/uploads/2018/02/maryoung-featured-image.jpg?fit=1050%2C509&description=Realismand

Impressionism:On

GustaveCaillebotte

byMarninYoung)

(https://plusone.googlehl=en-US&url=http://blog.yalrealism-and-impressionism-on-

gustave-caillebotte-by-

marnin-young/)

You might also like...

(http://blog.yalebooks.com/2014/01/09/on-creating-facture-the-national-gallery-of-arts-new-conservation-journal-privileged-intimacy-with-great-works/)

2/13/2019 Between Realism and Impressionism: On Gustave Caillebotte by Marnin Young | Yale University Press Blog

http://blog.yalebooks.com/2015/07/21/between-realism-and-impressionism-on-gustave-caillebotte-by-marnin-young/ 8/17

On Creating Facture, the National Gallery of Art’s New Conservation

Journal: Privileged Intimacy with Great Works

(http://blog.yalebooks.com/2014/01/09/on-creating-facture-the-

national-gallery-of-arts-new-conservation-journal-privileged-intimacy-

with-great-works/)

Daphne Barbour and Melanie Gifford– Those of us who…

Continue reading... (http://blog.yalebooks.com/2014/01/09/on-creating-facture-

the-national-gallery-of-arts-new-conservation-journal-privileged-intimacy-with-

great-works/)

(http://blog.yalebooks.com/2012/06/26/character-sketch-the-comic-that-inspired-roy-lichtenstein/)

Character Sketch: The Comic That Inspired Roy Lichtenstein

(http://blog.yalebooks.com/2012/06/26/character-sketch-the-comic-

that-inspired-roy-lichtenstein/)

Roy Lichtenstein: A Retrospective, by curators James Rondeauand Sheena…

Continue reading... (http://blog.yalebooks.com/2012/06/26/character-sketch-the-

comic-that-inspired-roy-lichtenstein/)

2/13/2019 Between Realism and Impressionism: On Gustave Caillebotte by Marnin Young | Yale University Press Blog

http://blog.yalebooks.com/2015/07/21/between-realism-and-impressionism-on-gustave-caillebotte-by-marnin-young/ 9/17

Leave A CommentYour email address will not be published.

Notify me of follow-up comments by email.

(http://blog.yalebooks.com/2011/05/18/happy-international-museum-day/)

Happy International Museum Day!

(http://blog.yalebooks.com/2011/05/18/happy-international-museum-

day/)

Around every May 18, the International Council of Museumsorganizes…

Continue reading... (http://blog.yalebooks.com/2011/05/18/happy-international-

museum-day/)

Name

Email

Website

2/13/2019 Between Realism and Impressionism: On Gustave Caillebotte by Marnin Young | Yale University Press Blog

http://blog.yalebooks.com/2015/07/21/between-realism-and-impressionism-on-gustave-caillebotte-by-marnin-young/ 10/17

Notify me of new posts by email.

Post Comment

(http://blog.yalebooks.com/2015/07/21/robert-

dahl-

and-

the-

future-

of-

democracy/)

t

(http://blog.yalebooks.com/2015/07/22/te

steps-

to-

help-

a-

loved-

one-

who-

has-

hearing-

loss/)

u

SEARCH

Search

LATEST POSTS

(http://blog.yalebooks.com/2019/02/04/the-50th-anniversary-of-portnoys-complaint/)

The 50th Anniversary of Portnoy’s Complaint(http://blog.yalebooks.com/2019/02/04/the-50th-anniversary-of-portnoys-complaint/)

2/13/2019 Between Realism and Impressionism: On Gustave Caillebotte by Marnin Young | Yale University Press Blog

http://blog.yalebooks.com/2015/07/21/between-realism-and-impressionism-on-gustave-caillebotte-by-marnin-young/ 11/17

This post is based on a lecture presented in Stockholm inhonor of Philip Roth…

(http://blog.yalebooks.com/2019/01/30/choosing-the-leader/)

Choosing the Leader(http://blog.yalebooks.com/2019/01/30/choosing-the-leader/)

Matthew N. Green and Douglas B. Harris— Party leadersin Congress matter. They shape…

2/13/2019 Between Realism and Impressionism: On Gustave Caillebotte by Marnin Young | Yale University Press Blog

http://blog.yalebooks.com/2015/07/21/between-realism-and-impressionism-on-gustave-caillebotte-by-marnin-young/ 12/17

LATEST VIDEOS

(http://blog.yalebooks.com/2019/01/29/spirit-of-zen/)

Spirit of Zen(http://blog.yalebooks.com/2019/01/29/spirit-of-zen/)

Sam van Schaik— Peace of mind The earliest Zenteachers talked about meditation in…

Renaissance Splendor: Catherine de’ MeRenaissance Splendor: Catherine de’ MeRenaissance Splendor: Catherine de’ Me………

2/13/2019 Between Realism and Impressionism: On Gustave Caillebotte by Marnin Young | Yale University Press Blog

http://blog.yalebooks.com/2015/07/21/between-realism-and-impressionism-on-gustave-caillebotte-by-marnin-young/ 13/17

SOCIAL UNIVERSITY PRESSES

Columbia University Press Blog(http://www.cupblog.org/) Duke University Press Log(http://dukeupress.wordpress.com/) Fordham Impressions(http://www.fordhamimpressions.com/) From the Square (NYU Press blog)(http://www.fromthesquare.org/) Georgetown University Press(http://georgetownuniversitypress.tumblr.com/) Harvard University Press Blog(http://harvardpress.typepad.com/) Indiana University Press Blog(http://iupress.typepad.com/blog/) Johns Hopkins University Press Blog(http://jhupressblog.com/) LSU Press Blog (http://blog.lsupress.org/) McGill-Queen's University Press Blog(http://www.mqup.ca/blog/) OSU Press Blog (http://osupress.oregonstate.edu/blog) OUPblog (http://blog.oup.com/) Penn Press Log (http://pennpress.typepad.com/) Penn State Press Blog (http://psupress.blogspot.com/) Princeton University Press Blog(http://blog.press.princeton.edu/) Stanford University Press Blog(http://stanfordpress.typepad.com/) Syracuse University Press Blog(http://syracusepress.wordpress.com/) Temple University Press Blog(http://templepress.wordpress.com/) Texas A&M University Press Blog(http://tamupress.blogspot.com) The Chicago Blog (http://pressblog.uchicago.edu/) The Florida Bookshelf(http://floridabookshelf.wordpress.com/) The MIT Press Log (http://mitpress.mit.edu/blog) The WesPress Blog(http://wespress.blogs.wesleyan.edu/) UNC Press Blog (http://uncpressblog.com/) University of Alabama Press Blog(http://uapressblog.wordpress.com/)

2/13/2019 Between Realism and Impressionism: On Gustave Caillebotte by Marnin Young | Yale University Press Blog

http://blog.yalebooks.com/2015/07/21/between-realism-and-impressionism-on-gustave-caillebotte-by-marnin-young/ 14/17

University of California Press Blog(http://www.ucpress.edu/blog/) University of Georgia Press Blog(https://ugapress.wordpress.com/) University of Hawai'i Press Blog(http://uhpress.wordpress.com/) University of Illinois Press Blog(http://www.press.uillinois.edu/wordpress/) University of Minnesota Press Blog(http://www.uminnpressblog.com/) University of Missouri Press Blog(http://umissouripress.blogspot.com/) University of Nebraska Press Blog (http://unpblog.com/) University of Texas Press Blog(http://utpressnews.blogspot.com/) University of Toronto Press Blog(http://utpblog.utpress.utoronto.ca/) University of Virginia Press Blog(http://www.upress.virginia.edu/blog/) University of Wisconsin Press Blog(http://uwpress.wordpress.com/) University Press of Colorado News(http://www.upcolorado.com/about-us/blog) University Press of Kentucky Blog(http://kentuckypress.wordpress.com/) University Press of Mississippi Blog(http://upmississippi.blogspot.com/) Wilfrid Laurier University Press Blog(http://nestor.wlu.ca/blog/)

ABOUT THE BLOG

(http://yalebooks.com) The Yale Press Log is the official blog of

2/13/2019 Between Realism and Impressionism: On Gustave Caillebotte by Marnin Young | Yale University Press Blog

http://blog.yalebooks.com/2015/07/21/between-realism-and-impressionism-on-gustave-caillebotte-by-marnin-young/ 15/17

Yale University Press. Founded in 2005, the Log has sincechronicled updates and breaking news about authors, books,publishing, museums, awards, contests, events, podcasts,book trailers, and reading.Yale University Press | YaleBooks.com (http://yalebooks.com)

Embed View on Twitter

Tweets by @yalepress

1h

Maren R. Niehoff's Philo of Alexandria "is well written and provides a compelling theory for Philo’s intellectual development." Read @ReadingReligion's review of the book here: ow.ly/mvHz30nFRGq

Check out @QuantaMagazine's profile of Mapping the Heavens author .@SheerPriya here: ow.ly/Iapu30nFRFh

Yale Univ Press@yalepress

Yale Univ Press@yalepress

Priyamvada Natarajan Maps the Invisible Universe | Quant…Priyamvada Natarajan has pioneered the mapping and modelingof the universe’s invisible contents, especially dark matter and

2/13/2019 Between Realism and Impressionism: On Gustave Caillebotte by Marnin Young | Yale University Press Blog

http://blog.yalebooks.com/2015/07/21/between-realism-and-impressionism-on-gustave-caillebotte-by-marnin-young/ 16/17

Embed View on Twitter

Tweets by @yaleARTbooks

Feb 8, 2019

Stephen C. Pinson's Monumental Journey is @nytimes's "Critic's Pick." Check out the review here: ow.ly/UbJT30nCgEC

Stephen C. Pinson's Monumental Journey exhibition and

yaleARTbooks@yaleARTbooks

An 1840s Road Trip, Captured on Lustrous SilverAn exquisite show at the Metropolitan Museum of Art recallstravel before digital maps, when photography was the hottest ofnytimes.com

yaleARTbooks@yaleARTbooks

(http://feeds.feedburner.com/blog-yupnet)

(http://www.twitter.com/yalepress)

(http://www.facebook.com/yalepress)

(http://www.youtube.com/yalepress)

Copyright © 2015 Yale University Press

(</div)

(</div)

2/13/2019 Between Realism and Impressionism: On Gustave Caillebotte by Marnin Young | Yale University Press Blog

http://blog.yalebooks.com/2015/07/21/between-realism-and-impressionism-on-gustave-caillebotte-by-marnin-young/ 17/17

(</div)(</div)

(</div)(</div)

(</div)

(</div)