1848 Gustave Caillebotte is born into a wealthy family in Paris.
1868 Awarded a degree in Law.
1870 Gains a licence to practice law. Serves in the military during the Franco-Prussian war.
1872 Attends the studio of Léon Bonnat where he begins to study painting.
1873 Occasionally attends the École des Beaux-Arts after passing the entrance exam.
1874 Inherits a substantial assets on his father’s death. Meets Edgar Degas. Attends the first Impressionist Exhibition.
1876 Encouraged by Auguste Renoir, he exhibits eight paintings (including the Floor Scrapers) at the second Impressionist Exhibition.
1877 Organized the third Impressionist Exhibition, also helping to finance the show.
1878 Receives another inheritance after his mother’s death.
1879 Persuades Claude Monet to participate in the fourth Impressionist Exhibition.
1882 Disillusioned by disagreements within the Impressionist group, Caillebotte moves from central Paris to Petit-Gennevilliers where he spent considerable time and effort on his garden.
1880s His garden and the flowers he grew are the subjects he painted during the later 1880’s.
1894 Caillebotte dies at the age of 45. He bequeathed his extensive collection of Impressionist masterpieces to the Musée du Luxembourg but his generosity was at first, as he anticipated, rebuffed, reflecting the continued animosity of the art establishment to all things Impressionist.
1896 A compromise was reached between the executors of Caillebotte’s will and the Musée du Luxembourg, which accepted 38 works out of the 67 Impressionist offered. These 38 paintings now form the core of the Musée d’Orsay’s Impressionist collection.
1875 Floor Scrapers, Paris, Musée d’Orsay
1876 Paris Street, Rainy Day, Chicago, Art Institute
1876 Pont de l’Europe, Geneva, Musée du Petit Palais
1877 Boating on the Yerres, Milwaukee Art Museum
1878 The Orange Tree, Houston, Museum of Fine Arts
1880 Nude on a Couch, Minneapolis Institute of Arts
1881 Fruit on Display, Boston MA, Museum of Fine Art
1884 Man at his Bath, Boston MA, Museum of Fine Art