With about a hundred paintings, pastels and drawings, this retrospective highlights just how essential Gustave Caillebotte’s (1848-1894) contribution was to Impressionism. Both as a painter – he took part in the Impressionist group’s exhibitions from 1876 to 1882 – and as a collector and patron of the arts, Caillebotte played a pivotal role at the heart of the movement. Very close to Renoir and Monet, he gave unfailing support to his friends and was very active in promoting the ‘New Painting’.
Between Realism and Impressionism
Caillebotte developed his own original art straightaway, combining distinctive viewpoints with dramatic perspectives. Oscillating between a Realistic style and then a freer touch, between the atmosphere of contemporary Naturalistic novels and the major Impressionist themes - Haussman’s Paris, the Seine near Argenteuil - he worked out a new artistic language over the years, blending the traditional with the modern. From the countryside around Yerres to the streets of Paris, from bourgeois interiors to the shores of Normandy and landscapes of the banks of the Seine, or from portraits to still lifes, this exhibition gives the full measure of a fascinating artist who was to have barely twenty years to reveal his enormous talent.
A surprisingly clairvoyant artistic taste
An intrinsically modern artist and an enthusiastic yachtsman and gardener, Caillebotte was also a collector with exceptionally astute artistic judgment as can be seen from the outstanding ensemble of paintings he bequeathed to the French nation and which is the nucleus of the Musée d’Orsay’s Impressionist collection today.
A hundred prestigious loans
Designed by the Fondation de l'Hermitage and presented exclusively in Lausanne, this first exhibition in Switzerland to be devoted entirely to Caillebotte leads the visitor to the very heart of Impressionism. It brings together prestigious loans from major public and private european and north american collections.
Special Activities
Adults: guided tours, lectures, special evenings. Children: workshops, free brochures.
Information and bookings: tel. +41 (0)21 320 50 01
Publication
Catalogue, 192 pages, 24 x 29 cm, 100 color illustrations, ISBN: 2-88453-123-8. Co-edited by the Fondation de l’Hermitage and Bibliothèque des Arts. Price: CHF 54, Euros 35.
| 
