La berge du Petit Gennevilliers et la Seine

Painted in 1892, this canvas shows the bank at Petit-Gennevilliers, where Caillebotte had built a house near the Seine in the western Paris suburbs that also served as his base for yacht racing. The view toward the Seine suggests the leisure boating world that Caillebotte participated in as one of France's leading competitive sailors. By the early 1890s he had largely retired from active exhibiting, devoting himself to his garden at Petit-Gennevilliers and occasional painting sessions on the river. This late landscape combines his interest in the Seine valley with the Impressionist plein-air practice he had pursued since the 1870s.

The composition uses the Seine bank as a foreground repoussoir element, with the broad river surface extending into the distance. The palette is warm and luminous, characteristic of the summer light along the western Seine valley. Caillebotte's brushwork is looser than his early manner, showing his absorption of Impressionist outdoor practice over the preceding decades.