Brief Report

Caillebotte had a particular predilection for pictures in the standard Figure 15 (54.0 x 65.0 cm) format, and this painting Gennevilliers Plain, Yellow Fields, is one such. He chose this format for more than a hundred pictures out of a total output comprising more than 500 works [Lewerentz 2008, pp. 274-275]. The canvas, pre-primed in off-white, came from the art-supply dealer Dubus, whom Caillebotte frequently patronized [cf. Caillebotte WRM Dep. 828, WRM Dep. FC 727, WRM Dep. FC 689, WRM Dep. 622]. In spite of the canvas's being lined, it was possible here to use UV fluorescence to reveal the dealer's stencilled inscription on the canvas verso (fig. 6). As has been possible to establish far more clearly in Caillebotte's other pictures, this one too shows evidence of a two-stage underdrawing in charcoal and in brush-and-paint. [cf. Caillebotte WRM Dep. 828, WRM Dep. FC 706, WRM Dep. 447, WRM Dep. 622] (fig. 12). The actual painting was then executed with lively brushwork predominantly in short strokes and dabs, wet-in-wet, but also wet-on-dry. The surface of the picture was gradually covered in repeated applications of paint spread over two to three sessions, during which process the foreground became increasingly impasto (figs. 3, 4). The autograph signature and date in dark-green paint seem to have been applied at the same time as the final colour highlights and in an identical colour (fig. 7). An important pointer to the picture's having been painted in the open air is to be found on its bottom edge, where a (now unfortunately retouched) unpainted patch points to the painting's having been fastened to a field-easel of the sort then usual for plein air painting [vgl. Caillebotte WRM Dep. 622, WRM Dep. FC 828, WRM Dep. FC 727, WRM Dep. FC 689] (fig. 10).

Gustave Caillebotte
The Plain of Gennevilliers, Yellow Fields, 1884, oil on canvas, 54.5 x 65.4 cm, WRM Dep. FC 561

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, lined


Fig. 03

Raking light


Fig. 04

Transmitted light


Fig. 05

UV fluorescence


Fig. 06

UV fluorescence of verso with detail of the sketchily discernible dealer's stencil DUBUS


Fig. 07

Detail, signature


Fig. 08

Detail, brisk painting method with places where the white ground has been left free


Fig. 09

Detail, flower field, with wet-in-wet and wet-on-dry paint applications


Fig. 10

Detail of the bottom edge of the picture, retouched unpainted patch in incident light and beneath the microscopic photograph (M = 1 mm), which presumably derives from the picture's having been fastened to a field-easel


Fig. 11

Off-white ground with slight admixture of yellow to red-ochre pigment, microscopic photograph (M = 1 mm)


Fig. 12

Blue-grey brush underdrawing and remains of what appears to be a previous charcoal sketch, microscopic photograph (M = 1 mm)