LAUSANNE, SWITZERLAND.- Showing a hundred works by Gustave Caillebotte (1848-1894), this exhibition, organized under the patronage of Monsieur Jacques Chirac, President of the French Republic, gives a closer look at just how original the artist’s contribution was to Impressionism. Both as a painter -- between 1876 and 1882 he took part in five of the group’s exhibitions -- a collector and a patron, Caillebotte played an essential role at the heart of the movement. Designed by the Fondation de l’Hermitage and presented exclusively in Lausanne, this is the first retrospective in Switzerland to be devoted entirely to the art of Caillebotte, bringing together prestigious loans from major private and public collections in Europe and America.

The exhibition includes nearly a hundred paintings and pastels by Gustave Caillebotte, as well as a remarkable ensemble of drawings. From the countryside around Yerres to the streets of Paris, from interiors to landscapes painted along the banks of the river Seine or from portraits to still lifes, the presentation illustrates all the many facets of this complex work - the fruit of barely twenty years’ activity.

After an academic training under Léon Bonnat at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts in Paris, Caillebotte, who already had a law degree, was refused entry to the ‘Salon’ to exhibit his Raboteurs de parquet (1875). He then joined the Impressionist group and took part in the second Impressionist exhibition in 1876 as Renoir’s guest. Caillebotte soon became the main organizer of these exhibitions where he regularly exhibited until 1882. He became a particularly close friend of Monet, who was a few years older and to whom he would never fail to provide moral and financial support. An extremely original painter himself, Caillebotte also had surprisingly clairvoyant artistic taste as can be seen from the names of the artists in his personal collection which was bequeathed to the French State (Cézanne, Degas, Manet, Monet, Pissarro, etc.).

Close to the Impressionists with his favourite themes and yet always keeping to a naturalistic mode, Caillebotte developed his own style over the years, subtly blending the traditional with the modern. From the famous Pont de l'Europe, painted in 1876, to Linge séchant au bord de la Seine, Petit Gennevilliers a few years later, Caillebotte’s compositions were always very carefully thought through and combine unusual angles and bold perspectives with perfectly mastered composition technique.