Where are the men? In Gustave Caillebotte's work, they are everywhere: on their knees in Les Raboteurs de parquet, absorbed by their efforts in A Boat Party, indolent in the streets of Paris in cold weather. rain, pensive and solitary at the top of the balconies... One hundred and thirty years after his disappearance and only thirty years after his rediscovery as an artist and forgotten patron of the History of art, the Musée d'Orsay paints the portrait of the most discreet of impressionist painters.

To understand a personality as complex as that of Caillebotte, we must first of all be interested in his favorite subjects and look at his male figures and his portraits of men. Through the selection of seventy wildly modern works, this exhibition shows how this young and rich Parisian bachelor captured the boredom and nonchalance of his contemporaries, disturbing the pre-established social order by laying the foundations of a new masculine condition. . A realistic tour de force which did not fail to arouse controversy among critics of the time – including Zola – who wrongly judged his painting too crude, too radical, trivial, monotonous, vulgar even horribly bourgeois for his time .

MUSÉE D’ORSAY
From October 8, 2024 to January 19, 2025
Esplanade Valéry Giscard d’Estaing, 75007 - M° Solférino (12)
Tuesday to Sunday 9:30 a.m. to 6 p.m., Thursday until 9:45 p.m., closed Monday
Price: €16 - TR: €13 - Free under 26s
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