Richard Gallo und sein Hund in Petit-Gennevilliers

By 1884 Caillebotte had eased away from the Paris art world. Rich enough that he never needed to sell, he had bought a house at Petit Gennevilliers on the Seine just outside the city, where he sailed, built boats, gardened, and painted the people close to him. The man here is Richard Gallo, a lifelong friend and the editor of a Paris newspaper, who sat for Caillebotte more often than any other model. His dog is along too. Caillebotte was 36 and would live only another ten years, and pictures like this, an old friend, a riverbank, an afternoon, are what he chose to spend that time on. The painting remains in private hands.