Brief Report

The painting of The Hillside at Colombes is one of a series of landscape studies of the open fields near Petit Gennevilliers which Caillebotte painted in 1884 [Berhaut 1994, p. 182-183, cf. Caillebotte WRM Dep. FC 561]. The artist used a canvas pre-primed in white in the standard F 20 size. According to a dealer's stencil verso he acquired the canvas from the Parisian art-supply store Dubus [cf. Caillebotte WRM Dep. 828, WRM Dep. FC 561, WRM Dep. FC 689, WRM Dep. 622] (fig. 2). Without any underdrawing, Caillebotte laid in the broad areas of the motif briskly in broad brush strokes. Before he continued with his painting, he appears to have let this underpainting in colour dry out completely, as evidenced by the often vigorous brushwork which is apparent through the visible painting in many places, in some places deviating markedly from the latter, as for example in the left foreground (figs 3, 8, 10). There are also deviations in the coloration: thus the green fields are underpainted in greyish-pink (fig. 11). This suggests that Caillebotte made corrections in this area of the picture during the painting process. The paint applications following the underpainting were probably executed in two or three sessions, both wet-in-wet and wet-on-dry. As already observed in other paintings by Caillebotte, the present picture too provides clues to its having possibly been painted in the open air: in the middle of the bottom edge, for example, there is a small unpainted area typically resulting from the fastening device of a field easel [Lewerentz 2008, p. 278-279, 282] (fig. 9). Also, there are on the edges pressure marks and traces of paint which do not belong in this picture, suggesting careless handling of the canvas while the paint was still wet (fig. 10). The black signature in the bottom right-hand corner is classified by Berhaut as a stamp [Berhaut 1994, p. 182]. However closer inspection reveals it to be no such thing, but rather a manually applied inscription (fig. 6). Even so, it cannot be positively identified as Caillebotte's own handwriting, and may be due to his brother Martial or his executor Auguste Renoir, who both signed many of the artist's paintings after his death [Berhaut 1994, p. 60, cf. Caillebotte WRM Dep. FC 689, WRM Dep. 622, WRM Dep. 828].

Gustave Caillebotte
Hills at Colombes, 1890, oil on canvas, 60.2 x 73.3 cm, WRM Dep. FC 727

Gustave Caillebotte

born on 19 August 1848 in Paris,
died on 21 February 1894 in Gennevilliers

Brief report with complete data as downloadable pdf-file

Further illustrations:

Fig. 02

Verso with detail of the Dubus dealer's mark (inset, top) and details of the turnover edge at the bottom after the partial removal of the adhesive paper (inset, bottom). Under infra-red the b/w picture reveals an indecipherable inscription


Fig. 03

Raking light


Fig. 04

Transmitted light


Fig. 05

UV fluorescence


Fig. 06

Details of the signature, top microscopic photograph (M = 1 mm)


Fig. 07

Detail under raking light, clearly discernible brushwork in the region of the crown of the hill


Fig. 08

Detail under raking light: the texture of short impasto brushstrokes of the underpainting is visible through the upper layers of the paint, in places deviating significantly from the latter in rhythm and orientation


Fig. 09

Detail, bottom edge, showing an unpainted patch probably due to the fastening of the picture to a field easel


Fig. 10

Details of the peripheral regions with evidence of careless handling of the painting while it was still wet: vertical pressure mark (left, under raking light) and strange splashes of blue paint (right, under incident light)


Fig. 11

Pink underpainting in the area of the green field in the foreground, microscopic photograph (M = 1 mm)


Fig. 12

Wet-in-wet blend in a white impasto area in the region of the crown of the hill, microscopic photograph (M = 1 mm)


Fig. 13

White impasto area in the sky with dark-grey remains of dirt beneath the varnish, microscopic photograph (M = 1 mm)