Lee Eun-hwa’s art class

“I feel thirstierw for love on the days it rains all day,” poet Yong Hye-won said. French painter Gustave Caillebotte must have felt a thirst for painting. He often painted the sight of rainy days. He loved raindrops and rivers and enjoyed boating. His painting “The Yerres, Effect of Rain” has everything he loved.

Caillebotte, who was born as the first son of a wealthy businessman in Paris, became a painter despite his parents’ disapproval. Thanks to a large amount of inheritance he received at the age of 26 when his father passed away, he was able to paint while living comfortably.

Caillebotte was one of the key impressionists but did not get recognition as a painter during his lifetime. Even his close friends considered him as a wealthy amateur painter. However, his impressionist paintings based on realism were distinctive in many ways. The painting captures the sight of raindrops falling into the river. Looking at the painting, one can almost hear the sound of raindrops. A small boat in the distance adds romance. It was a huge leap for him to paint a landscape with a bold diagonal composition inspired by a snapshot and without any human figures.

Caillebotte was also a collector who lived by noblesse oblige. He remained unmarried his whole life and supported impressionists by holding exhibitions, paying rents, and buying their paintings. When he died at the age of 46, he donated all of the paintings he collected to the French government. He was the rain for a drought to thirsty impressionists, just like the raindrops just in his painting.