Les orangers

The Orange Trees ( French: Les orangers, English: The Orange Trees ) is a painting by the French painter Gustave Caillebotte from 1878 The dimensions of the painting are 157 × 117 cm. . The painting belongs to the collection of the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston.

Image description

The painting shows a scene in the garden of the estate of the family Caillebotte in Yerres. In the foreground a man is to be seen - Martial Caillebotte, the brother of the artist. He sits on a chair in the shade of the orange trees, turned his back to the viewer. A bit away, behind a small table with chairs, near an orange tree, is a girl - Zoe, the cousin of Gustave and Martial. In the painting you can see only the lower part of the leaves of the orange trees. In the background is the lighted walkway that leads around a flower bed with bright red flowers. Art historian Kirk Varnedoe pointed out that the size and style of this painting seem to orient from the 1860s to more images of Monet and Renoir, as in other works from the late 1870s.

Background to the emergence of

The father of the painter acquired the location in the metropolitan area of Paris estate of Yerres in 1860. The house and surrounding park remained until the death of the mother of the painter in 1878 in possession of the family. In the same year the painting The Orange trees originated. The former country estate of the Caillebotte family (French: La Propriété Caillebotte ) is now available in the possession of the city Yerres and the public.

Provenance

The painting remained until the artist's death in 1894 in his possession, and then went by inheritance to the family of his brother Martial. They sold the picture of the Parisian art dealer Lorenceau to a unnamed collector in Zurich. About the Zurich gallery Feilchenfeldt got the painting in the collection of John A. and Audrey Jones Beck from Houston. After the image had left to the local Museum of Fine Arts on loan The orange trees a few years, it came in 1999, along with other works in the collection basin ( John A. and Audrey Jones Beck Collection) as a foundation of this institution.