Gustave Caillebotte

Though I had seen Caillebotte's paintings before, I was only really struck by his work when visiting the Musée d'Orsay in August. Throughout his relatively short life, Caillebotte was an accomplished painter, organizer of Impressionist exhibitions, regatta racer (and designer), stamp collector, and gardener. To me, the special characteristic of his paintings is the dramatic effect created by the spacing; combining perspective with some kind of geometric alchemy, Caillebotte draws the viewer in to both a painting's main subject(s) and the tension between the foreground and backgrounds. Though many of his people ignore the the viewer (like Edward Hopper's subjects a few decades later), their presence remains "alive." It's the same with his flowers, buildings, and animals (dead or alive). Somehow, over and over, Mr. Caillebotte froze life at its understated height, capturing the exact moment between a rise to climax and collapse.

Image: "Self Portrait" (c. 1888-89)