Bouquet of Roses in a Crystal Vase

By 1883 Caillebotte had mostly stepped back from the Paris art world he had helped to run. Rich enough not to need to sell, he had bought a house at Petit Gennevilliers on the Seine outside the city, and there he threw himself into gardening and sailing. The flowers in paintings like this one were often his own, cut from beds he tended himself. For years he had been the quiet organiser and paymaster of the Impressionist group, buying his friends' work when no one else would. Now he painted roses in a glass vase for the pleasure of it, with the same plain, close attention he once gave to Paris streets and rooftops. He was only 34 then, with about a decade left to live.