Collection: Gustave Caillebotte: Painting His World

Art Institute of Chicago

Jun 29–Oct 5, 2025

Impressionist artist Gustave Caillebotte  (1848–1894)—known and beloved by many Art Institute visitors for his monumental painting Paris Street; Rainy Day—takes center stage in this major exhibition exploring the very personal interests and relationships that shaped his world.

Caillebotte was unique among his Impressionist peers. At a time when modernity was synonymous with fashionable young women and new forms of entertainment, he focused instead on a more intimate and individualized sphere: his family and friends, his fellow sportsmen, the bourgeois pedestrians strolling in his neighborhood, and the workers who came to his house or whom he observed in the street.

Despite being born into the wealth built by his father, Caillebotte resisted the idleness associated with the leisured class. He was not only an active member of the Impressionist group but also participated in several activities as a high-level amateur, including rowing, gardening, and sailing. In all of his pursuits, Caillebotte gave his all, taking on the role of leader, organizer, and sometimes financier; he also captured these passions in paint, whether documenting the toil of boating, the serenity of tending a plant, or the concentration of a card game.

Caillebotte was equally invested in his personal relationships, both familial and non-familial—and again these relationships, especially with the males he interacted with as son, brother, employer, colleague, and friend—are the focus of many of his artworks.

One sees in multiple paintings his two brothers and other family members as well as a wide circle of friends, often depicted in Caillebotte’s own home—in a favorite chair, by a recognizable window, or on an often-portrayed sofa. Most intimately, and most unusually for the time, Caillebotte also painted nude men in the privacy of their bath.