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Lot Essay
The Comité Gustave Caillebotte have confirmed the authenticity of this work.
In Promeneur au bord de la mer, 1885, Caillebotte demonstrates his full mastery of the Impressionist painters vocabularly. The short brush strokes used for the vegetation, the broader brush work conveying sky and water, serve to accent the solid greys of the man's suit. The painting revisits one of the artist's most enduring themes, that of people strolling at their leisure, whether it be on the cobblestones and bridges of Paris or the footpaths and banks of the Seine. It is uniquely a Caillebotte in its original and distinctive perspective. The figure is central to the painting; and unlike the manner in which his contemporaries Renoir, Monet and Pissarro would have composed his subjects, the man is not only moving but moving straight towards the viewer.
Where other Impressionists integrated people into the landscape, Caillebotte centres his walking man as the main element of the painting in which his formal urban attire clearly marks him as a visitor to the bucolic countryside. Some have proposed that this is a self-portrait; although unproven it is certainly a Parisian of the bourgeois class leisurly strolling the paths of the fashionable Normandy coast.
Although not specifically located by the artist, the picture was most probably painted in Trouville where Caillebotte spent his Summer months pursuing his passion for sailing. As early as 1881, Trouville's town records show that Caillebotte had rented a summer residence on the seafront accessible through a steep path (see Chemin montant, 1881; B. 158) which could well be the one shown in the present painting.
During his stays in Normandy, Caillebotte painted few compositions. Spending most of his time at sea, he chose to focus most of his compositions on the landscape just as Claude Monet had done a few years earlier. Promeneur au bord de la mer belongs to a rare handful of paintings representing figures by the sea.
In Promeneur au bord de la mer, 1885, Caillebotte demonstrates his full mastery of the Impressionist painters vocabularly. The short brush strokes used for the vegetation, the broader brush work conveying sky and water, serve to accent the solid greys of the man's suit. The painting revisits one of the artist's most enduring themes, that of people strolling at their leisure, whether it be on the cobblestones and bridges of Paris or the footpaths and banks of the Seine. It is uniquely a Caillebotte in its original and distinctive perspective. The figure is central to the painting; and unlike the manner in which his contemporaries Renoir, Monet and Pissarro would have composed his subjects, the man is not only moving but moving straight towards the viewer.
Where other Impressionists integrated people into the landscape, Caillebotte centres his walking man as the main element of the painting in which his formal urban attire clearly marks him as a visitor to the bucolic countryside. Some have proposed that this is a self-portrait; although unproven it is certainly a Parisian of the bourgeois class leisurly strolling the paths of the fashionable Normandy coast.
Although not specifically located by the artist, the picture was most probably painted in Trouville where Caillebotte spent his Summer months pursuing his passion for sailing. As early as 1881, Trouville's town records show that Caillebotte had rented a summer residence on the seafront accessible through a steep path (see Chemin montant, 1881; B. 158) which could well be the one shown in the present painting.
During his stays in Normandy, Caillebotte painted few compositions. Spending most of his time at sea, he chose to focus most of his compositions on the landscape just as Claude Monet had done a few years earlier. Promeneur au bord de la mer belongs to a rare handful of paintings representing figures by the sea.