Bords de l’Yerres

Gustave Caillebotte was born to a wealthy family and spent his childhood among the Parisian elite, enjoying the financial benefits of the textile business which his father had inherited. Though he attended the Lycée Louis Le Grand and obtained a law degree at his father's urging in 1870, Caillebotte shifted his focus almost immediately thereafter to embark on a serious study of the visual arts. Joining the studio of the academic painter Léon Bonnat (who later trained Georges Braque and Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec), Caillebotte experienced lifelong financial security which allowed him the freedom to paint without the necessity of selling his work, as well as to serve as an important patron for his contemporaries in the Impressionist group. Caillebotte enrolled in the Ecole des Beaux-Arts in 1873, however records indicate that his attendance there was rather sporadic as his interest in a more avant-garde manner of painting developed. Like many of his contemporaries, Caillebotte was classically trained but ultimately rejected Academic conventions, preferring instead to create more daring compositions with fresher, brighter palettes and unconventional perspectival modes.
In 1860, Caillebotte's father, Martial, had purchased a large property in the Parisian suburb of Yerres, and the family began spending summers in the countryside. During his childhood and early adolescence, Caillebotte developed his interest in painting and draughtsmanship, executing his first informal plein air studies of the surrounding countryside. This affinity for painting spontaneous studies executed in situ, whether in urban or pastoral environments, would ultimately align him with his colleagues in the Impressionist group.