Parisian Masculinities Revisited

Abstract

Both Michael Marrinan’s Gustave Caillebotte: Painting the Paris of Naturalism, 1872–1887 and Mary Hunter’s The Face of Medicine: Visualising Medical Masculinities in Late Nineteenth-Century Paris consider painting from the same place and period, as well as conceptions of realism and naturalism, and constructions of masculinity. The ways that they do this attest not only to the diversity of arts practices operating within those arenas but also to the very different modes of art historical inquiry that address them. Gustave Caillebotte: Painting the Paris of Naturalism, 1872–1887 is a long-awaited contribution to Impressionist studies, and the result of decades of research. Through extensive work in the Paris notary archives and careful study of little-known and privately held paintings, Marrinan offers a cohesive picture of the artist’s life and career, answering biographical questions that have long plagued scholars. Twelve short and clear chapters are accompanied by over 130 colour reproductions. Given that Caillebotte’s catalogue raisonnée is almost exclusively black and white, and that the majority of his work resides in private collections and is therefore difficult to access, this is a significant achievement that greatly expands our understanding of the scope of Caillebotte’s practice. The application of a consistent authorial voice addressed to the entire span of the artist’s career is also noteworthy. Caillebotte holds a unique place in histories of nineteenth-century art, which has given rise to bold arguments from some of Impressionism’s most eminent scholars but few single-authored, book-length studies. Caillebotte’s best-known paintings do not include the hallmarks of what has come to be identified as Impressionist style. His independent wealth has often been considered the cause of an inconsistent oeuvre, which allowed at times for striking innovation in composition and subject choice but, on other occasions, work that has been described in terms of a rather amateur quality. His notoriously sketchy biography and striking pictures have been the subject of essays and chapters that have included interpretations related to Caillebotte’s sexual identity, his transgression of gendered norms of representation, and his contested relationship to class.1 While Marrinan’s project may lack the radical stakes and polemical energy that drove some of those earlier interventions, his account of Caillebotte’s work nonetheless provides a touchstone for coming to terms with it.