La Machine de Marly

Gustave Caillebotte inherited considerable wealth which allowed him to pursue a career in painting. Caillebotte used part of his fortune to support fellow artists and their group exhibitions during his lifetime. In 1875 after having his work rejected by the Salon jurors, Caillebotte began exhibiting with the Impressionists.

The artist's family had an estate in Yerres southwest of Paris on the Yerres river. The house, gardens and adjacent river were the subject of his paintings during the summers he lived there until 1879. He also painted scenes of modern life, portraits and still lifes. Caillebotte often painted en plein–air in Petit Gennevilliers, Argenteuil and Marly-le-Roi. Caillebotte may have painted the dam in Marly depicted in La Machine de Marly, ca. 1875 with Alfred Sisley who was in Marly-le-Roi, a suburb of Versailles, from 1873 to 1876.