Vista de tejados

In the winter of 1878, Gustave Caillebotte did something painters of his time rarely bothered to do. He looked out over the rooftops of Paris under snow and decided the roofs alone were worth a picture. No street life, no figures, no river, just chimneys, slates and skylights running back into a heavy grey sky touched with a little pink. Caillebotte was wealthy enough that he did not need to sell, and he spent much of his money buying and defending the work of his Impressionist friends. He showed this canvas at their fourth exhibition in 1879, one of 25 pieces he brought. The crowds walked past it. They wanted his boating scenes and his portraits, not a study of empty roofs. It only reached the Musee d'Orsay in 1986, long after the plain modern city he was looking at had become the thing people most admire in him.