In 1887 Caillebotte moved from Paris to Petit-Gennevilliers, near Argenteuil. Here he was able to indulge in his favourite pastimes of painting and sailing, and his works from this date onwards centre mainly on landscapes as opposed to his earlier Parisian street scenes and city themes. Monet and Manet had been painting the life of the river since the early 1870s and the same subject-matter provided the similar inspiration for Caillebotte. Much of his work from 1882 onwards concentrated on the Seine and its tributaries enabling Caillebotte to provide many paintings full of vigour and light.

As Marie Berhaut (loc. cit, 1978, p. 68) notes, "On ne saurait oublier que la presence du Cercle de la Voile de Paris fut très probablement la raison principale du choix par Caillebotte de sa résidence du Petit-Gennevilliers. Si, ainsi que nous venons de le voir, il a, comme ses amis, trouvé sur les bords de la Seine tant de motifs pour l'étude des jeux subtils de la lumière et des couleurs", and she continues to describe how just as either Monet or Manet so too Caillebotte was a master of the treatment of light on water, "Ici encore le scintillement et les reflets sur l'eau s'unissent à la vibration de l'atmosphère en une facture purement impressionniste" (loc. cit., p.68).