The Richard Gallo Series

Abstract

Gustave Caillebotte was a painter in and patron of in the French Impressionist School of the late 1880s. Studies of his work have generally focused on his early works and have lacked a thematic approach. This study utilizes a unique series of Caillebotte's seven portraits of Richard Gallo, repeated over a six-year period (1878–1884), to present such an approach to his work. It analyzes each work in the context of contemporary and current criticism, considering the role of Gallo in each composition. In this manner, Gustave Caillebotte's Gallo series emerges as a bold and complex male portrait series from the French Impressionist era.