Caillebotte, Gustave (1848-1894)
Périssoires (Canoes)
1878
Oil on canvas, 155.5 x 108.5 cm
Musée des Beaux-Arts, Rennes
The training of Caillebotte, a student of Bonnat, seemed so short to the critic Émile Porcheron that he accused him of “tortizing perspective”. But in 1876, Caillebotte placed himself at the forefront when he participated in the second Impressionist exhibition, organized by Paul Durand-Ruel in Paris. Several themes animate his naturalist painting, organized around his private life: the property in the Val d’Yerres, the Parisian apartment and his circle of friends, the installation on the banks of the Seine justified by his love of boats. Caillebotte describes the work in the museum as a “decorative panel”, a term claimed by Monet as much as Degas at this date. He seeks to renew this decorative tradition that the Nabis had already borrowed.
Les Périssoires evoke the pleasures of summer not far from the capital, in the new social context of Sunday leisure. The painting is the central element of a triptych, between an angling scene and another of swimming, which was to adorn a living room of the Montgeron property. The effects of light give the composition of the painting all its strength. The sky is closed by foliage which takes up the entire pictorial space. The notion of depth is diminished and makes one renounce perspective. Without a doubt, Caillebotte – whose brother Martial is himself a photographer – is sensitive to the new capture of space that photography, a modern technique, is offering. The lessons of Japonism are put to work through a bird’s eye view. The temporal and spatial notions emanating from the composition are translated by small pictorial touches, while a nuanced green palette evokes moments of pleasure in life. Caillebotte treats the representation of the forest like the greenery of ancient tapestries. It refers to the tradition of entertainment, gallant parties and rural scenes of Lancret, Watteau, and later the young Goya. (MBAR)