Regatta at Trouville

Artist Gustave Caillebotte (French, 1848-1894)

Place of OriginFrance

Date1884

DimensionsPainting: 23 3/4 × 28 3/4 in. (60.3 × 73 cm)
Frame: 31 3/4 × 36 1/2 × 3 in. (80.6 × 92.7 × 7.6 cm)

MediumOil on canvas

ClassificationPaintings

Credit LineGift of The Wildenstein Foundation

Object number

1953.69

On View

Toledo Museum of Art Glass Pavilion (2444 Monroe Street), Glass Study Room GP

Label TextIn a view that seems like an uncomposed snapshot, summer villas hug the cliffs above the English Channel at Trouville, France. Beyond, sailboats racing in the Trouville-Deauville regatta dot the sea, some of them composed of only one or two strokes of paint. The atmospheric effects of sunlight, water, and moisture-laden haze where sea transitions into sky are captured evocatively in this canvas, which was probably painted out of doors (en plein air) in late July or early August. Although better known for his scenes of contemporary urban life in Paris, after 1880 Gustave Caillebotte increasingly painted scenes of the Normandy coast in the north of France. Born into privilege, Caillebotte was a lifelong boating enthusiast. It was around 1880 that he had begun to compete (and win) in the annual regattas at Trouville in yachts that he himself designed. The regatta of 1884, when this canvas was painted, included one of Caillebotte’s own boats.Published ReferencesBérhaut, Marie, "Catalogue des peintures et pastels," Gustave Caillebotte, Paris, Wildenstein, 1951, no. 216 (as Villerville).

Toledo Museum of Art, The Toledo Museum of Art, European Paintings, Toledo, 1976, p. 33, pl. 259.

Varnedoe, Kirk, Gustave Caillebotte: A Retrospective Exhibition, Houston, Museum of Fine Arts, 1976, no. 65, pp. 41, 53, 169.

Bérhaut, Marie, Caillebotte: sa vie et son oeuvre, Paris, 1978, no. 269, p. 172, repr.

Milkovich, Michael, Degas and His Friends, Memphis, The Dixon Gallery and Gardens,1986, no. 12, repr. p. 34.

Gerstein, Marc S., Impressionism: Selections from Five American Museums, New York, Hudson Hills, 1989, no. 7, repr. (col.) p. 36 (as Regatta at Villerville).

Baron, Jean-Marie, Caillebotte, impressioniste, Paris, 1994, p. 58, repr. (col.).

Gustave Caillebotte 1848-1894, Paris, 1994, p. 277, fig. 1 [not in exhibition]. (in English ed. p. 265, fig. 1).

Distel, Anne et. al, Gustave Caillebotte: The Unknown Impressionist, London, 1996, fig. 1.

Ramadier, Pascal, "Yachting et impressionisme: Gustave Caillebotte à Trouville," Athena Sur La Touques, no. 129, Sept. 1996, p. 9, repr. [in VF].

Friedrich, Florence, Caillebotte: Au Coeur de L'Impressionisme, Lausanne : Fondation de l'Hermitage, 2005, no. 67, repr. (col.) p. 95.

Haslett, Carrie, Paris and the Countryside: Modern Life in Late 19th-century France, Portland, Me., Portland Museum of Art, 2006, p. 86, 91, fig. 58 (col.) p. 90 and (det. col.) p. xii.

Bergeret-Gourbin, Anne-Marie, Honfleur et les peintres, 1820-1920, Rouen, Ed. des Falaises, 2007, p. 175, repr. p. 173 (col.)

Fonsmark, Anne-Birgitte, Gustave Caillebotte, Ostfildern (Germany), Hatje Cantz Verlag, 2008, no. 34, p. 40, 78, 79, n. 3, repr. 40 (col.). and p. 84 (col.).

Lloyd, Christopher; Charles, Daniel & Cate, Phillip Dennis, Impressionists on the Water, San Francisco, Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, 2013, repr. (col.), no. 131.

Impressionists at the Waterside, Depicting Urban Resorts: Paris, the Seine, and Normandy, Tokyo, Tokyo Fuji Art Museum, 2013, p. 170, cat. 82, repr. (col.) p. 135.

Morton, Mary and George T.M. Shackleford, Gustave Caillebotte: The Painter's Eye, Washington D.C., National Gallery of Art, 2015, repr. (det.) p. 243, fig. 2.

Durand-Ruel Snollaerts, Claire et al., L'atelier en Plein Air: Les Impressionnistes en Normandie, Brussels, Belgium, Fonds Mercator, 2016, no.18, p. 116, repr. (col.) p. 117 (Also repr. in color as postcard for the Musee Jacquemart-Andre, Paris).

Marrinan, Michael, Gustave Caillebotte: Painting the Paris of Naturalism, 1872-1887, Los Angeles, California, The Getty Research Institute, 2016, 333-334, repr. (col.) fig. 169, p. 333.

Exhibition HistoryNew York, Wildenstein, Gustave Caillebotte, 1968, no. 50 (as Paysage, Bord de Mer).

Houston, Museum of Fine Arts; Brooklyn Museum, Gustave Caillebotte: A Retrospective Exhibition, 1976-1977.

Memphis, The Dixon Gallery and Gardens, Degas and His Friends, Sept. 16-Oct. 31, 1986.

Toledo Museum of Art, Pittsburgh, Carnegie Museum of Art; Minneapolis Institute of Arts; Kansas City, Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art; Saint Louis Art Museum; Impressionism: Selections from Five American Museums, 1989-1990.

Lausanne, Fondation de l'Hermitage, Caillebotte: Au Coeur de L'Impressionisme, Jun. 24-Oct. 23, 2005, no. 67

Portland, ME, Portland Museum of Art, Paris and the Countryside: Modern Life in Late 19th-century France, Jun. 23-Oct. 15, 2006.

Bremen, Kunsthalle; Copenhagen, Ordupgaard, Uber das Wasser - Gustave Caillebotte, 2008-09, no. 34.

Tokyo, Tokyo Fuji Art Museum; Fukuoka, Fukuoka City Museum; Kyoto, The Museum of Kyoto, Impressionists at the Waterside, Oct. 29, 2013–May 11, 2014.

Paris, Musee Jacquemart-Andre, Monet, Renoir, Pissarro, Boudin, Gauguin...in Normandy: Open-Air Studio, March 18-July 25, 2016.

Comparative References