Gustave Caillebotte

            
             Impressionism is a movement in painting that started in the nineteenth century in France. It focuses on sensuous colors, nature, and movement of light. The Impressionist movement's name came from Claude Monet's early work "Impression: Sunrise". The central early Impressionist group was made up of Claude Monet, Pierre-Auguste Renoir, and Edgar Degas. However, this is not about the Impressionist movement itself but about a man who worked hard for the cause and ensured its spot in history books. For many years he was considered a minor Impressionist by art historians and not important. This man was Gustave Caillebotte.
             Gustave Caillebotte was born in Paris, France on August 19, 1848. His family had made their money in textiles and real estate during the reconstruction of Paris. He had originally started training to be an engineer but became interested in painting. He entered the Ecole des Beaux-Arts in 1873. When his father died in 1874 he was left independent and wealthy. He met the early impressionists (Monet, Renoir, and Degas) in 1874. That same year he helped organize the first impressionist exhibition in Paris. .
             Caillebotte participated in many of the exhibitions. He took part in the second impressionist exhibition in 1876. In fact, Caillebotte became the chief organizer, promoter, and primary financial investor of the impressionist exhibitions for the next six years. During that time he was known mainly as a large collector and fan of the impressionist artist. "Caillebotte was a collector as well as an artist and many of his Impressionist colleagues benefited from his willingness to pay dearly for work that nobody else wanted". He had collected works by Monet, Renoir, Pissarro, Cezanne, Degas, and Sisley. His generosity was often useful to less financially stable colleagues such as Monet. .
             Caillebotte had created many great pieces of his own during his time.