Gustave Caillebotte's masterpiece 'Boating Party,' painted around 1877-1878, has been classified as "the most important national treasure in recent years" and is currently being displayed alongside 'Young Man at His Window' in New York as part of a collaborative project between the Louis Vuitton Foundation, the Musée d'Orsay, and the J. Paul Getty Museum. This major work of Impressionism represents a significant milestone in French cultural diplomacy and the preservation of national artistic heritage.
Gustave Caillebotte was the youngest of the Impressionist painters, and the Musée d'Orsay's fall 2024 exhibition 'Painting Men' revealed him as a complex figure who was both solitary and unifying, playing an essential supportive role among his peers. As an exhibition organizer and collector, he gifted the French state a collection of works by his friends through a will written at age 28, with the precise note that it would take time for the public to "accept this painting." These works now form the heart of the Musée d'Orsay's collection.
Long considered secondary, Caillebotte's art has experienced renewed interest in recent years. Paul Perrin, director of conservation and collections at the Musée d'Orsay, explains this resurgence: "This can be explained by the development of art history research, the appearance of new works on the market, and the increasing rarity of works by other Impressionist painters."
'Boating Party,' created around 1877-1878 and first presented at the fourth Impressionist exhibition in 1879, perfectly captures the essence of Caillebotte's work. The artist often painted his circle of acquaintances, and this boating scene on the Yerres River, near the family property, likely references his passion for boat racing. The vessel visible in the background evokes a sporting atmosphere, though the identity of the rower in action remains unknown, as does much of Caillebotte's personal life.
The tight framing, reminiscent of the then-emerging practice of photography, creates a vivid sense of intimacy and sensuality between the viewer and the subject. This represents a vision of the modern man – a city dweller curiously wearing a silk top hat in this circumstance, then considered evening attire, along with one of those striped shirts that fashionable men wore in the countryside. With his dandy's jacket placed beside him, he relaxes, lost in thought.
Since Caillebotte didn't need to sell his art to make a living, he always kept 'Boating Party' in his studio. Many of his works, including this one, remained in his family's hands after his sudden death at age 45. On January 30, 2020, when the painting was about to be sold, it was classified as a "national treasure," a legal measure to protect major cultural assets and attempt to prevent their departure abroad. LVMH Group then acquired it to donate to the Musée d'Orsay for the substantial sum of 43 million euros.
Jean-Paul Claverie, advisor to Bernard Arnault and LVMH's patronage activities, explains: "The group is one of France's principal patrons, an attentive supporter of the Louvre, Versailles, the Musée d'Orsay, and the Centre Pompidou. Several foreign museums had already positioned themselves to buy 'Boating Party,' the most important national treasure in recent years. We saved it so that it would remain in French heritage."
The exhibition 'Caillebotte: Painting Men,' conceived by Sylvain Amic, the former president of the Musée d'Orsay who passed away suddenly last summer, celebrated this entry into the national collections in collaboration with the Getty Museum in Los Angeles and the Art Institute of Chicago. This modern art icon has now made its appearance on the New York scene as part of an event conceived as the final chapter of this touring exhibition by Jean-Paul Claverie and Katherine Fleming, president of the Getty Trust.
The current display is one of the Louis Vuitton Foundation's off-site programs in the brand's spaces. In this focused two-work exhibition, 'Boating Party' dialogues with 'Young Man at His Window' (1876), acquired by the Getty Museum in 2021 for $53 million. This painting depicts René, the artist's younger brother, who died a few months after the work was completed, looking out at the city from the family apartment. Had Claude Monet's recommendation been followed, this would have been the sole Caillebotte work accompanying his bequest to the French state – instead, 'The Floor Scrapers' was ultimately chosen.
Katherine Fleming, a Francophile who taught in the history department at the École Normale Supérieure, presents this program as "an act of cultural diplomacy that strengthens Franco-American friendship and demonstrates France's evolution in dialogue between the public museum sector and the private sector." The presence of 'Boating Party' in New York also demonstrates the Musée d'Orsay's commitment to circulating its collections both in France and abroad.
Starting in the second half of November, the work will finally be permanently hung on the walls of the Musée d'Orsay, where it has been housed for only a few months until now. This marks the culmination of an extraordinary journey for what experts consider one of the most significant acquisitions in recent French cultural history.
