Unearth the homoerotic art of Impressionist Gustave Caillebotte
| 04/13/25
Self Portrait of Gustave Caillebotte, 1892
Grand Palais RMN Musée d'Orsay
Martine Beck Coppola
The term “French Impressionism” conjures a hetero world of frilly images — from Degas’s dancers, to Monet’s women with parasols, to Renoir’s female bathers. This overly simplistic story has been upended and queered by the exhibition “Gustave Caillebotte: Painting Men,” currently at Los Angeles’s Getty Museum, and moving to the Art Institute of Chicago on June 29.
Caillebotte (1848-1894) was best known for being a benefactor to his fellow Impressionists. Dismissed by his contemporaries as “a millionaire who paints in his spare time,” Caillebotte’s 500+ works over the course of a short career didn’t receive true recognition until American museums rediscovered him in a 1995 retrospective.
House Painters, 1877
Grand Palais RMN Musée d'Orsay
Sophie Cr'py
My first close encounter with Caillebotte’s work was at the L.A. stop of this retrospective. I vividly remember being overwhelmed not only by the beauty of his work but by its undeniable homoeroticism. I ravaged the catalog looking for clues, but all I got was references to his “modernity.” The Getty’s 2021 acquisition of “Young Man at His Window” (1876) for a record-breaking $53 million was one of the catalysts for the current exhibition, which finally brings all aspects of his work to light, as hinted in the title: “Gustave Caillebotte: Painting Men.”
The exhibition’s outstanding catalog explains how, unlike his peers, who painted female images which were easier to sell, Caillebotte, who received a sizable inheritance from his parents, was able to paint what interested him: his bachelor friends, men on balconies over Paris’s boulevards, muscular rowers and sultry workers.
Portrait of Mr. G. [Gallo], 1881
as photographed by Author
Courtesy Getty Museum
To understand how radically modern Caillebotte’s male imagery was, we need to place it in historical context. France’s defeat in the Franco-Prussian War (1871) contributed to a “crisis of masculinity” in society. As a result, new all-male clubs, sports groups, and uber-virile imagery flourished in patriotic support of the recently proclaimed Republic.
Caillebotte, whose career rose during this historical shift, painted male figures that reinforced this desired manliness such as soldiers, workers, and sportsmen, but he also dared to depict subversive images of men charged with ambiguity and sexual tension.
Paris Street, Rainy Day, 1877
The Art Institute of Chicago
Charles H. and Mary F. S. Worcester Collection
The perennial bachelors he depicted, many performing activities considered feminine, challenged the traditional heteronormative gaze. Art critics didn’t seem to notice it at the time, but times have changed. The Getty’s curator for the show, Scott Allan, explained to me in an interview how “Caillebotte, who flipped the script on gender norms, was provocative and avant-garde. He challenges the viewers in the way he frames the male nudes, making room for a homoerotic gaze in which desire is open to interpretation.”
Self-Portrait at the Easel, 1879
image provided by Author
Caroline Coyner Photography
Caillebotte ignored the marital expectations for men of his class by being a lifelong bachelor. He left a substantial annuity in his will to a female companion who barely appeared in his art, Charlotte Berthier, an act that some scholars have taken as proof of his heterosexuality. Whether he was gay or not is one of the many mysteries shrouding his life and his work, inviting speculation to this day.
Jonathan D. Katz, who wrote an essay for the catalog, told me that the fact that the Musee d’Orsay, where this exhibition debuted, held a symposium on these gender issues, which reveals a sea change in its politics. This audacious approach, however, got severe pushback from some French press who attacked the show, claiming that “American gender studies in art history had crossed the Atlantic and landed in Paris.”
MAN AT HIS BATH, 1884
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
MFA Boston
What better way to start this debate than decoding Caillebotte’s majestic “Man at His Bath” (1884), which broke every rule. At a time when bather scenes were almost exclusively female and male nudity was relegated to mythological or historical scenes, Caillebotte unabashedly depicts a naked man vigorously toweling off after bathing.
MAN DRYING HIS LEG, 1884
as photographed by Author
Courtesy Getty Museum
By framing it in a cinematic close-up, the artist forces us to join him in his voyeuristic scenario. He intensifies the sexual titillation by highlighting the bather’s buttocks in sensual fleshy pink, drawing our full attention. In a related painting, “Man Drying His Leg,”Caillebotte goes one step further by making the nude model’s groin the painting’s focal point. These paintings challenge us with uncomfortable questions. How closely should we (male or female) examine them? Who were these men, friends of the artist, members of his household staff?
No wonder these scenes, charged with homoerotic potential bordering on scandalous, have fueled speculation about the artist's sexuality.After a progressive artists' association invited Caillebotte to exhibit “Man at His Bath” in Brussels in 1888, they balked at this nude, hiding it in a small side room. Caillebotte would never exhibit his works in public ever again.
On the Pont de l’Europe, 1877
Kimbell Art Museum, Fort Worth, Texas
Kimbell
One of Caillebotte’s unique traits is how he shrewdly portrayed ambiguous, all-male, interactions. For example, is the man in “House Painters” (1877) checking out the work or the other painter? In “On the Pont de l’Europe,” (1877) three faceless men from different social classes huddle together. The scene elicits sexual frisson when we realize that, in those days, same-sex relationships were mostly experienced across class lines.
FLOOR SCRAPERS, 1875
Grand Palais RMN Musée d'Orsay
Patrice Schmidt
Having grown up near the family textile factory in Paris, Caillebotte imbued this experience in “Floor Scrapers,” (1875) introducing the figure of the urban laborer into modern French painting. There’s a lot to unpack in this iconic painting, which features three shirtless workers preparing the floors of the artist's new studio, their torsos and beefy forearms caressed by the city’s warm light. Unlike his Impressionist peers, who focused on bourgeois scenes, Caillebotte’s bold signature in this painting communicates his identification with physical labor and homosocial environments.
Robert Gallo in Interior, Woman at the Window, 1880
image provided by Author
Bridgeman Images
"Floor Scrapers" also acts as a visual manifesto of the new French Republic’s motto “Liberty, Equality, Fraternity,” rooted in a collective, egalitarian effort for the country. Caillebotte’s affinity, however, only goes so far. These men are in submissive positions in service of the artist, whose elevated viewpoint affirms his social status.
Caillebotte submitted “Floor Scrapers” to the Salon jury, which represented the academic establishment. Being admitted would have put him on the map as an artist. Unfortunately, he wasn’t accepted, probably because his painting confronted traditional representations of high-class society.
Le Pont de l’Europe, 1876
Geneva, Association des Amis du Petit Palais
Courtesy Getty Museum
The Impressionists had revolted against the musty values of the Salon with provocations such as painting outdoors, which caused their work to be ridiculed. However, in a decision which transformed his life, Caillebotte accepted Renoir’s invitation to include “Floor Scrapers” in the second Impressionist Exhibition (1876).
From this moment on, Caillebotte’s personal and professional journey was attached to the Impressionists. In fact, he purchased many of their works and donated 68 of them to the French state with the condition that they would be displayed in a museum. His visionary approach paid off. They are now one of the crown jewels of Paris’sMusée d’Orsay.
BOATING PARTY, 1878
Grand Palais RMN Musée dOrsay
Franck Raux
Many of Caillebotte’s best-known works depict oarsmen, a perfect alibi to depict well-fit men in form-revealing outfits. The masterpiece from this series is “Boating Party,” (1878) acquired by the d’Orsay for $47 million. The painting inserts us in a “party” loaded with sexual possibilities. Caillebotte daringly places us as the passenger in a rowboat, inches away from a dashing oarsman with crimson lips. The unavoidable center of attention is his crotch, which is fitting, considering that, at this time, boaters were objects of desire in arts and literature.The boaters and divers in Caillebotte’s paintings are male, so it’s not farfetched to imagine that the oarsman’s passenger enjoying the view is also male, flipping the gender tropes once again, opening the interpretation to same-sex desire.
THE BEZIQUE GAME, 1881
image provided by Author
Department of Culture and Tourism Abu Dhabi Photo/APF
Another major work, “The Bezique Game” (1881), captures his brother and five of his friends, only one of which would marry. Standing center is Richard Gallo, possibly Caillebotte’s closest friend and the model for six other works. In one of them, Gallo is sitting on a lush sofa, seemingly very uncomfortable at being objectified in a setting usually reserved for female nudes in art history. The show’s French curator, Paul Perrin, pointed out at me how, in “Self-Portrait at the Easel” (1879) Gallo appears in the background as Caillebotte’s companion, instead of the usual image of a female muse or wife.
Robert Gallo in Interior, Woman Reading, 1880
image provided by Author
Caroline Coyner Photography
Gallo also appears in two disconcerting paintings, posing as a married man dwarfed in size and social role by his wife, both indifferent to each other. These paintings reveal Caillebotte's opinion of traditional marriages as monotonous and capable of zapping an artist’s creativity.
GUSTAVE CAILLEBOTTE IN DRAG, May 1868
historical photograph
Family Archives
And, just when you thought you had solved some of Caillebotte’s mysteries, here comes the 1868 photograph of the artist posing, as many wealthy women did at the time, dressed in formal women's clothing and wig. Not included in the exhibition’s catalogue, it appears in a recent biography of the artist by one of Caillebotte’s descendants, who skirts around the shocking image by describing it as possibly a theatrical get-up for a costumed ball. Photography historians, however, confirm that this was an extremely unusual image for his time.
In the end, you leave the show buzzing with questions but also buzzed by its sheer beauty. The Getty show, which nearly didn’t happen because of the L.A. fires, is simply unmissable.
Ignacio Darnaude, an art scholar and lecturer, is currently developing the docuseries Hiding in Plain Sight: Breaking the Queer Code in Art. You can view his Instagram, lectures and articles on queer art history at linktr.ee/breakingthegaycodeinart
See Ignacio Darnaude give a tour of the Getty's Gustave Caillebotte exhibition
Nikki Aye is the photo editor for this article. Images courtesy Getty Museum, where "Gustave Caillebotte: Painting Men" will be on display until May 25. For more information, visit getty.edu.
