Gustave Caillebotte was a French painter, member and patron of the group of artists known as Impressionists,
though he painted in a much more realistic manner than many other artists in the group. Caillebotte was noted
for his early interest in photography as an artform. His style belongs to the School of Realism but was
strongly influenced by his Impressionist associates. In common with his precursors, Jean-Francois Millet and
Gustave Courbet, as well his contemporary Degas, Caillebotte aimed to paint reality as it existed and
as he saw it, hoping to reduce painting's inherent theatricality. Perhaps because of his close relationship
with so many of his peers, his style and technique varies considerably among his works, as if “borrowing”
and experimenting, but not really sticking to any one style. At times, he seems very much in the Degas camp
of rich-colored realism (especially his interior scenes) and at other times, he shares the Impressionists'
commitment to "optical truth" and employs an impressionistic pastel-softness and loose brush strokes most
similar to Renoir and Pissarro, though with a less vibrant palette.