White and yellow chrysanthemums. Petit Gennevilliers garden

This late garden canvas from 1893 showing white and yellow chrysanthemums at Petit Gennevilliers belongs to the most personal phase of Caillebotte's practice. In his final years before his death in 1894, he devoted himself almost entirely to painting flowers and his garden, subjects free from the social and critical pressures of his Impressionist career. The Musée Marmottan Monet version has a particular intimacy, the two-toned white and yellow blooms arranged with a collector's appreciation for botanical variety. These paintings were largely unknown during his lifetime but are now recognized as significant contributions to Impressionist flower painting.

The white and yellow blooms are distinguished through subtle tonal variation rather than color contrast — a demanding technical achievement. Caillebotte works with creamy whites and pale yellows over a mid-tone ground, using directional brushstrokes to describe each petal's form and direction.