Making and exhibiting modernism: Gustave Caillebotte in Paris, New York, and Brussels

Abstract

This dissertation examines the career-long exhibition strategy of the French Impressionist painter Gustave Caillebotte (1848-1894). Between 1876 and 1888, Caillebotte showed works at eight group exhibitions: five with the Impressionists, two organized by the dealer Paul Durand-Ruel in New York and Paris, and one mounted by Les XX, the premier avant-garde artists' group in late nineteenth-century Brussels. His role at these exhibitions ranged from primary organizer to invited participant, but at each, Caillebotte exhibited works that he had painted and selected within the context of an evolving and responsive exhibition strategy. ☐ In this dissertation, I argue that Caillebotte's eight lifetime group exhibitions constitute a secondary form of artistic practice that complemented and informed his work in the studio. Proceeding chronologically, the chapters that comprise this dissertation consider each of these eight exhibitions individually. Throughout, I approach Caillebotte's work as an artist and as an exhibition organizer as intertwined and mutually influential. I locate the visual expression of Caillebotte's ambitions as an exhibition organizer in the works that he chose to exhibit and hold back over the course of his twenty-year career. I identify trends in the critical responses to his paintings at these exhibitions and I argue that the artist adjusted his work in the studio so that it would better align with the expectations of his public audiences. By recovering the reactive, synergistic relationship between Caillebotte's studio and extra-studio modes of artistic practice, this study evaluates both in greater depth than has been previously understood.