Portrait de Camille Daurelle dans le jardin d'Yerre
Gustave Caillebotte·1877
Historical Context
Portrait de Camille Daurelle dans le jardin d'Yerre (1877, Musée d'Orsay) places the same sitter as his pastel portrait into the outdoor setting of the Yerres garden — a combination of portraiture and landscape that was characteristic of his Yerres period. The garden setting allows Caillebotte to integrate his interest in specific individuals with his documentation of the estate's spaces, producing a work that is simultaneously a landscape and a portrait. The Orsay's holding confirms its importance to the official narrative of French Impressionism.
Technical Analysis
The outdoor garden setting creates the challenge of integrating a carefully observed figure with the complex, sun-dappled visual field of a summer garden. Caillebotte renders the natural light on the sitter with the same attention he brought to his indoor portraits, while the garden setting is handled with the Impressionist directness he was developing throughout 1877.
