The text below is the excerpt from the book Gustave Caillebotte (ISBN: 9781683256939), written by Nathalia Brodskaïa and Victoria Charles, published by Parkstone International. Gustave Caillebotte (1848-1894) is one of the most important figures of French Impressionism. He was not only a very passionate painter who created about 500 paintings, but also supported his contemporary fellow artists as a collector, patron, and initiator by funding and organising exhibitions. Nevertheless, he remains one of the less publicised Impressionist painters. Gustave Caillebotte was born on 19 August 1848 as the eldest of three sons of the twicewidowed cloth merchant, trade judge, and real-estate dealer Martial Caillebotte and his third wife Céleste Daufresne in Paris, where he…