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Les dahlias, jardin du Petit Gennevilliers signed 'G Caillebotte' (lower left) oil on canvas 451/2 x 34 7/8 in. (115.6 x 88.4 cm.) Painted in 1893 PROVENANCE EugŠne Lamy, Paris (1893). Mme. Desgranges, Paris (by descent from the above). Marlborough Fine Art, Ltd., London (1961). Richard J. Bernhard, New York (1966). Wildenstein & Co., Inc., New York. Acquired from the above by the present owner, by 1976. LITERATURE W. Gaunt, "Masterpieces from the Great Age of French Landscape", Connoisseur, December 1961, p. 319. M. Berhaut, Caillebotte, sa vie et son oeuvre, Paris, 1978, p. 230, no. 442 (illustrated). K. Varnedoe, Gustave Caillebotte, Paris, 1988, p. 174 (illustrated, fig. 58c). J. Chardeau, Les dessins de Caillebotte, Paris, 1989, pp. 106-107 (illustrated in color, p. 107). M. Berhaut, Gustave Caillebotte, catalogue raisonn‚ des peintures et pastels, Paris, 1994, p. 242, no. 461 (illustrated). EXHIBITION Paris, Galerie Beaux-Arts, R‚trospective Gustave Caillebotte, May-July 1951, no. 88 (illustrated, fig. 330). London, Marlborough Fine Art, Ltd., French Landscapes, October-December 1961, no. 8 (illustrated). New York, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Summer Loan Exhibition: Paintings, Drawings and Sculpture from Private Collections, summer 1966, no. 17. New York, Wildenstein & Co., Inc., Nature as Scene: French Landscape Painting from Poussin to Bonnard, October-December 1975, no. 11. Houston, The Museum of Fine Arts and The Brooklyn Museum, Gustave Caillebotte: A Retrospective Exhibition, October 1976-April 1977, pp. 174-175, no. 71 (illustrated, p. 175; titled La maison de Gennevilliers ). NOTES In 1878, following the death of their mother, Caillebotte and his brother Martial moved into an apartment in Paris. Having sold the family's substantial properties, in 1881 they purchased a home in Petit Gennevilliers. About half an hour outside of Paris by train, this area along the Seine had become a popular vacation spot. The beauty of the area, as well as its association with the leisure class made this part of the Seine a favorite spot of the Impressionists, and Caillebotte was no exception to this attraction. By 1888, Caillebotte moved to Petit Gennevilliers full time. He immersed himself wholeheartedly in this new suburban lifestyle, taking advantage of the sporting activities and clubs that the location offered, particularly concerning boating. But perhaps his most beloved activity in Petit Gennevilliers was gardening. The property contained a substantial greenhouse, which would become an important feature of the residence. The complex structure of his garden proved Caillebotte's interest to be much more than that of an amateur. Unlike his earlier city scenes or his paintings of the Seine, this subject allows the viewer an intensely personal glimpse into the painter's private world. The intimacy of the path, ambling up to the artist's home, surrounded by flowers and trees, is an invitation to enter a private landscape. In Les Dahlias, jardin du Petit Gennevilliers, the sunlight strikes the dahlias in the forefround, creating a sun-dappled pathway, leading to the house which is almost completely bathed in light. In a discussion of the pendant painting for the present work, Kirk Varnedoe has noted, "Caillebotte shifts his emphasis to a greater interest in the atmospheric effects of light and shadow" (K. Varnedoe, Gustave Caillebotte: A Retrospective, exh. cat., Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, 1976, p. 176). Varnadoe has further commented, "The spatial organization, established here, seem[s] to leap back across the work of the 1880s, to correspond more closely with the pictures of 1875-1877. The prominent, very close, off-center foreground element combines with the direct spatial axis of the path to strike a familiar but long-absent note" ( ibid., p. 175). Caillebotte, an experienced and talented artist, shows in this painting he is able to retrieve the best elements of his earlier works, and expand upon them to create a new, intimate vision within his art. (fig. 1) Caillebotte in his garden at Petit Gennevilliers.