“Oarsmen Rowing on the Yerres,” 1877. In his painting of oarsmen rowing on the nearby river, he depicted the figures very close up, as if he were in the boat with them, and establishes an even more dominating stance by looking down from overhead.
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“Poodles in Impressionism”? Now there’s an exhibition theme, and one that the stretched-thin Impressionism industry may eventually have to resort to. When that time comes, all eyes will turn to Gustave Caillebotte, who painted more than a few pets of exceptional charm. You can see at least one of them, plopped down by the Seine, in the show called “Gustave Caillebotte: Impressionist Paintings From Paris to the Sea” at the Brooklyn Museum.
“Roses in the Garden at Petit Gennevilliers,” 1886.
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Thirty-some years ago the museum had a big success with a Caillebotte retrospective, which more or less introduced American audiences to an artist who was an Impressionist by association rather than by style or temperament. His three best-known pictures, “The Floor Scrapers,” “Le Pont de l’Europe” and “Paris Street; Rainy Day,” all urban scenes from the mid to late 1870s, have more to do with academic realism than with the scintillations of Monet.
Odd angles, daringly modern, became a specialty. He seems to view the floor-scrapers, seen in an 1876 painting in the Brooklyn show, from atop a stepladder.
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“The Pont de l’ Europe,” 1876
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“House Painters,” 1877.
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Full article and photos: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/27/arts/design/27cail.html
