Old Magloire on the Chemin de Saint-Clair at Étretat

People came to Etretat for the cliffs. Courbet had painted the arches and the chalk needle, Maupassant grew up just along the coast from them, and through those same years Monet kept coming back to work on them in every kind of weather. Caillebotte was in Normandy for a different reason. He designed and raced his own yachts, and the summer regattas were at Trouville. When he painted at Etretat in 1884 he turned inland instead, to the road that runs up toward Saint-Clair, and to a local man the title simply calls old Magloire. He was 36 that year, and 1882 had been the last time he showed with the Impressionists. He went on painting steadily, and this canvas is still in private hands.