During the height of Impressionism in the 1870s and 1880s, Gustave Caillebotte (1848–1894) produced some of the movement’s most daring and bold paintings. Experimenting with radical points of view and audacious perspective, he created images of Paris streets, of domestic life, and of country pursuits that are unforgettable. Some fifty paintings—most from 1875 to 1882, the time in which Caillebotte was most committed to the Impressionist movement—will reveal his genius. Such masterworks as Paris Street; Rainy Day (Art Institute of Chicago), Floor Scrapers (Musée d’Orsay), and two versions of the Pont de l’Europe (Musée du Petit Palais, Geneva, and Kimbell Art Museum) are among the familiar images that will be joined by paintings from museums and private collections throughout the world. Together, they will present to American audiences for the first time in a generation the full range of Caillebotte’s extraordinary vision. This challenging and thought-provoking retrospective of what the Wall Street Journal called “Caillebotte at his best” will “make us wonder what we’re looking at, wonder what we’ve decided we see, and why ” (New York Times).
