Brief Biography-Gustave Caillebotte from Paris was an Impressionist painter. He gained a law degree and attended the Ecole des Beaux-Arts before studying in the atelier of Leon Bonnat. The paintings of Edgar Degas and other notable Impressionists of the time whom he supported financially influenced his style.
Caillebotte inherited his father’s business, which made him a wealthy man. He was more a patron of the arts than an artist trying to make a living. He did not have to sell his paintings; many stayed within the family. His whole collection, consisting of other impressionist artists' works, was bequeathed to the State, but they only accepted half; it was in 1928 that they hung in the Louvre. Several artists of his time scorned impressionists, most notably Jean Leon Gerome of the Ecole des Beaux-Arts who objected to ‘such filth’ hanging in the Louvre.
He ceased exhibiting in 1882 and went about hobbies for the remainder of his life, including stamp collecting and yachting. The collector Albert C Barnes later bought part of his collection, which is now in his Philadelphia foundation. Several of his paintings are with the Musée d’Orsay.