Portrait of A. Cassabois

This is a small, quiet picture from a very busy year. In 1877 Caillebotte, not yet 30, was one of the main organizers of the third Impressionist exhibition in Paris. He put money toward the costs, helped hang the rooms, and showed his own large city scenes there, among them the wide grey view now called Paris Street, Rainy Day. Away from that, he sat a man down and painted his portrait. Most of the people Caillebotte painted were friends and family rather than paying clients, and this appears to be one of them. We know almost nothing about the sitter. He survives only as A. Cassabois, a surname and an initial in the catalogue of the artist's paintings, with no story securely attached to it.