A Couple Day-trips

18 Jun 2023

Gustave Caillebotte

Gustave Caillebotte was a part of the Impressionist movement of the second half of the 19th century, though his painting style was more realistic than the other Impressionists. Because he was born (1848) into a wealthy family, had an impressive allowance and then inherited his father’s fortune in 1874, he was able to support the often-moneyless Impressionist artists, usually by purchasing their paintings. Caillebotte exhibited with the Impressionist artists at their salons, though his style wasn’t really the same.

In 1878 he and his brothers sold the family estate - the house and grounds we visited last week, in the town of Yerres, about 20 miles south of Paris. Though he continued to paint, Caillebotte stopped exhibiting, and increased his help to other artists. In 1888 he moved to a house in Argentueil, a favorite location of many impressionists. From this time to his death five years later at age 45, he devoted himself to designing, building and racing sailboats, though he continued to paint. At the time of his death he owned 65 paintings by the main Impressionist artists: Monet, Manet, Pissarro, his close friend Renoir, and others.

This house, long the main house of the family, is owned by the town of Yerres and has been restored thoroughly. Much of the furniture was in the house when it was in the family. Laurie and I really enjoy seeing set pieces of rooms furnished and decorated as they were when a house was lived in, so we were pleased when Mary & Gilles suggested we visit it - about an hour away.

First, probably the best known painting of Gustave Caillebotte (image from Wikipedia):

*The Floor Scrapers, by Gustave Caillebotte (1875). For a look at more Caillebotte paintings: More Caillebotte*

The Caillebotte House

*The house in which Gustave Caillebotte lived for almost twenty years. His family was clearly well off. The house sits on about 15 acres of parkland.*

*We were surprised at how much the dining room resembles the dining room of our house back home: it has a table and chairs; ours has a table and chairs, too.*

*A small private sitting room. All the walls and all the furniture were covered in the same fabric; pretty, but a little busy on the eyes.*

This is an unusual collection: the husband of the woman who owned this house before the Caillebotte family, was associated with Napoleon, and she collected Napoleon memorabilia. Although Napoleon was never here, his bed is. Sure looks comfortable, right?

*A view of the "backyard." (A small part of the 16 acres.) The building is the Orangerie, where orange trees were kept in pots and raised indoors so they could provide fresh oranges during winter.*

We very much enjoyed our day in Yerres, at the house and estate of Gustave Caillebotte. We had a very nice lunch at the Salon de Thé on the grounds, saw the house and walked a bit around the grounds. The temperature was in the high-80s, so not too much walking!

La Musée de la Grand Guerre - the Museum of World War I

Two days later we went - again with Mary & Gilles - to a far more sobering place: the Museum of World War One. To the French this is “la Grand Guerre: the great (in terms of size) war. Now, in the United States we think of World War Two as “the big one,” but in France, World War Two pales in comparison with World War One in terms of deaths. In WW2, France’s total military deaths were about 390,000. In WW1, the country suffered 1,400,000 deaths - about 4% of the population and somewhere around 18% of its young men!

On the other hand, the United States lost about 117,000 soldiers in World War One (less that one-tenth of one percent of its population), and 420,000 in World War Two (three-tenths of one percent of population). So while we see WW2 as the “Great War,” France rightfully looks at WW1 as a “the big one.”

Meaux (pronounced “Moe”) was near the front lines of WW1 - about an hour east of Paris - and so is an excellent location for this museum. This is a spectacular museum. It has an amazing collection of everything war-related, from military equipment to art that soldiers built from war debris, to mock-ups of the infamous trenches that soldiers lived in for weeks at a time, to mannequins wearing almost every type of uniform and carrying their kit. Everything is well organized and beautifully presented. You see World War One in its military history, and how the soldiers and the populations lived it. This place is amazing and absorbing.

A few pictures of the museum…

*A Scottish soldier in full uniform and army kit (not to mention kilt).*

Above, an allied forces trench. Four months after the war started, the front lines were 475 miles long, with anywhere from two or three to ten lines of trenches on each side. Soldiers would serve six to eight weeks in the front line trenches and then be relieved for about the same length of time, after which it was back to the front lines. If you think this looks not too bad, remember that the trenches often had a foot or two of mud in the bottom and there was no heat or running water.

*A bunk room. How would you like to live here for weeks on end? Ugh.*

*World War 1 saw the first use of airplanes in warfare. This is the famous Spad XIII, first seeing action in 1917*

We visited an area of the World War 1 front in 2015. If you’re interested, that post is at Nantillois

Gotta say, this is not a museum that leaves you joyful and optimistic. It is an impressive museum, though, beautifully and powerfully presenting a history of a horrible war (is there any type of not-horrible war?) in military and very personal terms. We visited here in 2015 and were glad to return. I suspect few American tourists get to Meaux and this museum but I can tell you that it’s worth the effort.