Gustave Caillebotte
The Orange Trees (Les orangers)
1878
Oil on canvas
61 x 46 in.
Caillebotte's The Orange Trees is a wonderful example of visually pleasing work that stays true to the impressionist ideal of painting out in the open completely exposed to all of the light. He employs wonderfully bright and warm colors in the background to offset the cooler tones in the foreground. This selection of colors is not only attractive, but also serves a stylistic purpose in this work. In the background, one can almost feel the heat beating down on the pathway, and the grass and flowers are illuminated and filled with life. Meanwhile the foreground is much cooler, here everything is at rest, and the shadows cast down by the trees provide shelter for the two loungers. Although Caillebotte's style was mush more realistic that his contemporaries, it is in the shadows that we can appreciate his impressionist style. The brushwork allows the viewer to envision the small flickers of light that filter through the foliage of the trees and dance about the floor. This effect if what attracted me to the work. Caillebotte does an exquisite job in creating a scene that engrosses the audience and allows one to experience the lazy afternoon along with his two loungers. It invokes a feeling of utter bliss, as if I was the one lounging underneath the tree tops enjoying the coolness of the shadows and looking up into the leaves and seeing the small rays of lights bursting through and creating wonderfully fleeting patterns that would never be quite the same as the one before it.
