Bed of Daisies

Acquired in 2016, thanks to public patronage offerings, this exceptional collection by Gustave Caillebotte is a rarity in terms of impressionist works of the era. Having been rolled up for a long time, then partially cut, the artwork was originally presented in four separate sections. Recent studies and restoration work have been able to do justice to the artist's highly personal creation and have reintegrated the entirety of the piece, as it should have been to begin with. In Petit-Gennevilliers, Caillebotte allowed himself to indulge in his two passions: sailing and gardening. This collection illustrates the decor that he undertook in 1893 for the dining room in his property in Petit-Gennevilliers. “Bed of Daisies” was incomplete upon the artist's death. Creating an immersive decor, Caillebotte had planned a mounted canvas, depicting a meadow scattered with these flowers springing up from the green grass. The doors were painted with orchids. Like his friend, Claude Monet, for Caillebotte nature needed to be aligned with painting, and the garden was part of his private, and artistic, horizons. The significant freedom of strokes, and the leaning movement which creates a slight breeze, moving from the left to the right throughout the collection, creates a perfect optical illusion and plunges the viewer into a dreamlike and rustic universe, doing justice to Caillebotte's modernity. Cyrille Sciama