Gustave Caillebotte: Painting Men at the Getty Center

Catherine Hess offers a tour of the Getty Museum's international loan exhibition Caillebotte: Painting Men. French Impressionist Caillebotte (1848-1894) is distinguished from his peers by an unusual interest in male subjects that included the men in his life—including his brothers, bachelor friends, fellow sportsmen, and the workers and bourgeois of his neighborhood. One might imagine that the title of the show plays off of the 80s disco hit song and gay anthem "It's Raining Men."

In these depictions, like his fellow Impressionists, Caillebotte was committed to depicting the realism of "optical truth." However, unlike his contemporaries, his bracingly original compositions dramatically position his subjects against windows or perspectival backgrounds.