Boating Party Gustave Caillebotte

Gustave Caillebotte was a French painter, member and patron of the group of artists known as Impressionists, stamp collector, and yacht engineer. Caillebotte was born on August 19, 1848 to an upper-class Parisian family. His father, Martial Caillebotte (1799-1874), was the inheritor of the family's textile industry and was also a judge at the Seine's Tribunal de Commerce. Caillebotte's father had been twice widdowed before marrying Caillebotte's mother, Celeste Daufresne (1819-1878), who had two more sons after Gustave, Rene (1851-1876) and Martial (1853-1910). Caillebotte's painting career slowed dramatically in the 1890s, when he stopped making large canvases and showing his work. He acquired a property at Petit Gennevilliers, on the banks of the Seine near Argenteuil, in 1881, and moved there permanently in 1888. He devoted himself to gardening and to building and racing yachts, and spent much time with his brother, Martial, and his friend Renoir, who often came to stay at Petit Gennevilliers. Caillebotte died prematurely, while working in his garden at Petit Gennevilliers in 1894 of pulmonary congestion, and was interred in the Pere Lachaise Cemetery in Paris.