The Cleveland Museum of Art

Collection Online as of April 17, 2024

Portrait of a Man

Portrait of a Man

1880
(French, 1848–1894)
France, 19th century
oil on canvas
Unframed: 81.3 x 65.6 cm (32 x 25 13/16 in.)
Bequest of Muriel Butkin 2009.157
Location: 220 19th Century European

Did You Know?

Before becoming a painter, Gustave Caillebotte studied to be a lawyer.

Description

Among Gustave Caillebotte’s most celebrated works are his views of modern Paris seen from balconies and terraces, a theme that first appeared in his paintings of the mid-1870s. This painting depicts a middle-aged man sitting in room and looking toward a window with laced curtains. His fashionable suit and bow tie are markers of his social status as a flâneur of the urban bourgeoisie. Rather than wearing an expression of joy or delight, the sunlight raking across his face accentuates his heavily lidded eyes and sagging facial muscles, giving him a deeply contemplative expression as he gazes at the world from the comfort of his sumptuous apartment.
  • (Galerie Braume and Lorenceau, Paris, France, acquired from the artist's family)
    1972-2009
    Noah Butkin [1918-1980], Shaker Heights, OH by inheritance to his wife, Muriel Butkin [1915-2008]
    -2009
    Estate of Muriel Butkin, Cleveland, OH, bequeathed to the Cleveland Museum of Art
    2009-
    The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH
  • Berhaut, Marie. Caillebotte: sa vie et son oeuvre : catalogue raisonné des peintures et pastels. Paris, France: La Bibliothèque des Arts, 1978. Reproduced: p, 125
    Berhaut, Marie, and Sophie Pietri. Gustave Caillebotte: catalogue raisonné des peintures et pastels. Paris, France: Wildenstein Institute, 1994. Reproduced: p. 126
    Distel, Anne. Gustave Caillebotte, Urban Impressionist. Paris, France: Réunion des Musées Nationaux, 1995. Reproduced: p. 206-207
    Distel, Anne. Gustave Caillebotte: The Unknown Impressionist. London, United Kingdom: Royal Academy of Arts, in association with Ludion Press, Ghent, 1996. Reproduced: p. 206-207, Mentioned: p. 244-245
    Johnston, Sona, Susan Bollendorf, and John House. Faces of Impressionism: Portraits from American Collections. Baltimore, MD: Baltimore Museum of Art in association with Rizzoli International, 1999. Reproduced: p. 46-47
    Groom, Gloria Lynn. L'impressionnisme et la mode. Paris, France: Musee d'Orsay, 2012. Reproduced: p. 212, no. 142
    Groom, Gloria Lynn. Impressionism, Fashion, & Modernity. Chicago, IL: Art Institute of Chicago, 2012. Reproduced: p. 145, 294
    Bougault, Valérie. “L’Impressionisme en Habits.” Connaissance Des Arts 708 (October 2012): 48–57. Reproduced: p. 55
    Morton, Mary G., George T. M. Shackelford, and Gustave Caillebotte. Gustave Caillebotte: The Painter's Eye. Washington, DC : National Gallery of Art ; Chicago, IL : Hardcover copublished by the University of Chicago Press, 2015. Reproduced: P. 143, no. 7
    Marrinan, Michael. Gustave Caillebotte: Painting the Paris of Naturalism, 1872-1887. Los Angeles: Getty Research Institute, 2016. Reproduced: p. 220, fig. 111 Mentioned: p. 224,226, 229, 232
    Ng, Aimee, Xavier F. Salomon, Stephen Truax, Hanya Yanagihara, and Jonathan Anderson. Living Histories: Queer Views and Old Masters. New York : The Frick Collection ; Lewes : in association with D Giles Limited, 2023. Mentioned and reproduced: pp. 68-69, fig. 17
    Christie, Manson & Woods. Masterpieces from the Collection of Sam Josefowitz: A Lifetime of Discovery and Scholarship. London: Christie's, 2023. Reproduced: p. 223
  • Impressionism to Modernism: The Keithley Collection. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (September 11, 2022-January 8, 2023).
    Gustave Caillebotte: The Painter's Eye. National Gallery of Art, Landover, MD (organizer) (June 28-October 4, 2015); Kimbell Art Museum, Fort Worth, TX (November 8, 2015-February 14, 2016).
    Impressionism, Fashion, and Modernity. Musée d'Orsay, Paris, France (September 25, 2012-January 12, 2013); The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY (February 19-May 27, 2013); The Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, IL (organizer) (June 29-September 29, 2013).
    Faces of Impressionism: Portraits from American Collections. Baltimore Museum of Art, Baltimore, MD; Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, TX; Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (1999).
    Gustave Caillebotte. Galeries Nationales du Grand Palais, Paris, France (1994); Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, IL (1995).
  • {{cite web|title=Portrait of a Man|url=false|author=Gustave Caillebotte|year=1880|access-date=17 April 2024|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}

Source URL:

https://www.clevelandart.org/art/2009.157