Le Petit Bras de la Seine en automne

By 1890 Caillebotte had largely left Paris behind. He had bought property at Petit-Gennevilliers, on the Seine across the water from Argenteuil, in 1881, and moved there for good in 1888. His time went into his garden and into designing and racing sailing boats, which he did well enough that he was talked about for the boats as much as for the pictures.

The petit bras is the narrow side channel of the Seine that ran past his door, the same water he sailed on. Here it is in autumn, the banks in yellows and browns under a hazy sky, on a tall upright canvas about 65 centimetres high.

It hangs in Toulouse now, in the Bemberg collection inside the Hotel d'Assezat, a Renaissance merchant's mansion in the old town.