Caillebotte at Yerres
Caillebotte spent his summers at his family's estate at Yerres, south-east of Paris, and painted its river, its rowers and its park through the 1870s.
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About the series
His father bought the property in 1860: a large park on the bank of the Yerres with a house, a chapel and an ornamental farm. Gustave spent his summers there until the estate was sold in 1879, the year after his mother died. The park now belongs to the town of Yerres and is open to visitors.
The river gave him his best known subjects from these years: oarsmen in top hats and shirtsleeves, the narrow canoes called périssoires, swimmers diving from the bank. He was a keen boater himself and later a serious yacht designer, and the boats sit in the water the way only someone who rowed would paint them. Smaller panels record the park itself, the kitchen garden wall, horses in the stable and soldiers in the woods.
The rowing pictures are bright and strongly lit. The small park studies are softer and suit a study or a reading corner.
