Sketchbook
June 1883–September 1887
Medium
Sketchbook containing 40 drawings: 30 in graphite, 7 in watercolor over graphite, and 3 in graphite and brush and gray wash, on 40 sheets of cream wove paper bound in brown cloth
Dimensions
Sheets: 11.4 × 19.5 cm (4 1/2 × 7 11/16 in.); Sketchbook: 12.5 × 20.3 × 1.5 cm (4 15/16 × 8 × 5/8 in.)
Classification
sketchbook
Department
Prints and Drawings
Museum
Art Institute of Chicago
Accession Number
208200
Rights
Public Domain
About this artwork
In 1881 Gustave Caillebotte purchased a home near Argenteuil, then a rural town on the outskirts of Paris, with his brother Martial, and this led to a notable decrease in his artistic productivity. Caillebotte’s “lost years” coincide with the use of this sketchbook. The subjects of the drawings in the book—panoramic views, portraits, intimate garden scenes, details of trees and architecture, and copies after other works—reflect Caillebotte’s shift away from his earlier depictions of urban Paris...