Gustave Caillebotte: Renoir’s Friend and Champion

Each week for the duration of the exhibition, we’ll focus on one work of art from Renoir and Friends: Luncheon of the Boating Party, on view October 7, 2017-January 7, 2018.

Born into a family that made its money in the textile business, Gustave Caillebotte used his considerable means to support his Impressionist colleagues and to purchase their work, acquiring paintings by Cézanne, Degas, Manet, Monet, Pissarro, and Sisley, among others. Although he was the least-known member of the “core” Impressionists (he was almost 10 years younger than the others and missed the group’s early development), during the late 1870s and early 1880s Caillebotte was an important participant in the dramatic revolution in French painting.

Among his early acquisitions was Pierre-Auguste Renoir’s Dance at the Moulin de la Galette (1876, Musée d’Orsay), shown at the third Impressionist exhibition; he even included it in the background of an 1879-80 self-portrait. Since Caillebotte bought many works by other Impressionists, his reference to this painting in his self-portrait seems a deliberate symbol of his admiration for and friendship with Renoir. During these days of struggle and ambition for Renoir, Caillebotte emerged as a stalwart advocate for his fellow artist and became a lifelong supporter of his work. Their friendship was a close one: in 1876, Caillebotte named Renoir executor of his will, and when Renoir and Charigot had their first son in 1885, they asked Caillebotte to be the child’s godfather. Caillebotte painted a portrait of Renoir’s wife, Aline Charigot, in the garden of his house at Petit-Gennevilliers in 1891; so too did Renoir paint Caillebotte’s sweetheart, Charlotte Berthier, though a few years earlier and in a more formal indoor setting. Renoir and Caillebotte were close friends until Caillebotte died of a stroke in 1894 at Petit-Gennevilliers.

Gustave Caillebotte, Madame Renoir in the Garden at Petit Gennevilliers (Madame Renoir dans le jardin du Petit-Gennevilliers), 1891

Gustave Caillebotte, Madame Renoir in the Garden at Petit Gennevilliers (Madame Renoir dans le jardin du Petit-Gennevilliers), 1891. Oil on canvas, 25 1/4 × 19 3/4 in. Collection of Bruce Toll

Aline Charigot: Renoir’s Ideal Partner

Each week for the duration of the exhibition, we’ll focus on one work of art from Renoir and Friends: Luncheon of the Boating Party, on view October 7, 2017-January 7, 2018.

Aline Charigot spent her childhood in the village of Essoyes, but came to Paris to join her mother in 1874. She probably met Renoir in 1879, when she was 20 years old. She was younger than Renoir by 18 years, entering his life as he was beginning to receive the recognition and commissions necessary to stabilize his career. They married in 1890 and had three sons. According to their son Jean’s descriptions of his mother, she was the ideal partner for his father: a generous companion who never lost her love of the countryside, and when they acquired their property in Cagnes, was ready to roll up her sleeves and work the land. She served as a regular model for her husband, and, according to Jean, all his father’s paintings of women after he met Charigot resemble her to some degree.

Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Young Woman Reading an Illustrated Journal, c. 1880

Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Young Woman Reading an Illustrated Journal (Jeune femme lisant un journal illustré), c. 1880. Oil on canvas, 18 1/4 × 22 in. Museum of Art, Rhode Island School of Design, Providence, Rhode Island, Museum Appropriation Fund

Aline Charigot is the young woman reading a journal in this intimate scene that reflects her interest in fashion, as well as her close relationship with the artist.

Edgar Degas and Ellen Andrée

Each week for the duration of the exhibition, we’ll focus on one work of art from Renoir and Friends: Luncheon of the Boating Party, on view October 7, 2017-January 7, 2018.

Edgar Degas, Portrait of Ellen Andrée, 1876

Edgar Degas, Portrait of Ellen Andrée (Portrait d’Ellen Andrée), 1876. Monotype in black and brown ink on ivory paper, 8 1/2 × 6 1/4 in. The Art Institute of Chicago

Ellen Andrée, born Hélène André around 1855, started acting in 1879. She was a favorite of Edgar Degas, Edouard Manet, and Pierre-Auguste Renoir, using her talents as an actress to play many roles as a model. A lively young woman, she joined the artists’ circle at the Café Nouvelle Athenes. In the early 1880s she gave up modeling entirely and in 1887 she joined a naturalist theater, the Teâtre-Libre. Her career took her to the United States, Argentina, and Russia. She married Henri Julien Dumont, a painter who specialized in flowers. Degas made several portraits of her and she modeled as the dissolute woman in his famous painting In a Café (L’Absinthe) (Musée d’Orsay, 1975-76), where she stares vacantly at the glass on the table in front of her.