Gustave Caillebotte (1848-1894) has a dual role in art history, as both a leading supporter and patron of the Impressionists and as an important painter in his own right. An independently wealthy member of the Impressionist circle, he sponsored shows, purchased works, and provided studio space for his fellow painters. Upon his death, his magnificent collection of Impressionist pictures was donated to the state, forty of which today form part of the collection of the Musée d'Orsay in Paris.

Although he exhibited almost exclusively with the Impressionists in the late 1870s and early 1880s, Cailebotte's work of the mid to late 1870s explored both the concerns of Realism and Impressionism, seemingly caught between the movements. Though he depicted scenes of modern life like his fellow Impressionists, his earlier paintings were executed in a more carefully observed and meticulously rendered style, before giving way to a more Impressionist, spontaneous handling of paint to capture the transient effects of light by the end of the 1870s. Despite his stylistic shift over the course of the decade, Caillebotte remained commited to painting scenes of everyday life, whether set in the bustling streets of Paris or the picturesque landscapes of the suburbs outside the city.

In 1881, Caillebotte bought land in the town of Petit-Gennevilliers, and over the course of the next decade, increasingly devoted himself to painting, gardening, and sailing, largely giving up his Parisian life for life in the country. Living just across the river from Argenteuil—where he had painted alongside Monet, Pissarro, and Renoir in the 1870s—from his residence, Caillebotte enjoyed a view of the water and sailing scenes became one of his preferred subjects at this time. An avid yachtsman, rower, and boat designer, Caillebotte raced in regattas as a younger man, and when he was older designed and built his own boats.

In paintings such as La Seine à Argenteuil, he combines his passion for painting with his love for sailing and boatbuilding. In the center of the composition are two small, colorful sailboats, one red and one yellow, bobbing with their sails furled on the rippling surface of the blue water. The masts stand tall, vertically intersecting the canvas and drawing the viewer’s eye upwards, in harmony with the verdant trees lining the riverbank. In the foreground, a dark green boat is cast in shadow, its prow sharply foreshortened, jutting out towards the viewer; in the background of the scene, a sailor glides his boat across the Seine, its crisp white sails billowing as it catches the wind.

Making heavy use of impasto, Caillebotte employs a rich and varied palette to build up the sparkling, textured surface of the water. Filled with luminous highlights and shadows—particularly in the vivid reflections the boats cast on the sunlit seafoam—Caillebotte’s true subject is not the boats, but the effect of the sunlight on water, faithful to the Impressionist fascination with capturing the brilliant and ever-changing effects of light.