Gustave Caillebotte had come into two large inheritances in the late 1870s and was spending his summers in Trouville by this time, indulging in the dual pursuits of sailing and painting - the former occupying a much larger percentage of his time. Villers-sur-Mer is a short, southwesterly distance from Trouville on the Normandy coast, where one notes a great many towns are similarly tagged with the addendum sur Mer ("on sea").
Villers-sur-Mer is known for straddling the Greenwich Meridian at its French entrance/exit point, containing Allied safe houses during World War II, being one of the first villages liberated after the June 6, 1944 Normandy Invasion and continuing to prosper as an altogether picturesque destination. Here Caillebotte has recorded its seaside villas colorfully perched on cliffs known as the Black Cows, or Falaises des Vaches Noires, due to the large, dark rocks that had tumbled off the cliffs and on to the beach below.
Though the yellows, violets and roses shown in this picture are miles removed from the drizzly tones Caillebotte employed in his more famous rainy Parisian street scenes, his unique stamp on perspective remains constant. The angles are just the slightest bit improbable; not so much that they shout "I'm wrong!" at the viewer, but enough so that they demand attention on a subliminal level, at least. Did this treatment help or hurt in publicizing Villers-sur-Mer as a lovely vacation spot? Judging by current rates for in-season tourist lodging, it's safe to say the possibility of slightly-skewed villas was never seen as a holiday detriment.
About the show:
Impressionists by the Sea takes a wondering look back at how the northern coast of France evolved from shore communities (that had lived off of fishing and shipping for centuries) to vacation spots for Parisians at leisure during the second half of the 19th Century. The full exhibition contains 60 paintings that focus first, in the 1860s, on the well-heeled sightseers who came and played, and later, in the 1880s, on the bounty of colors and light offered by the cliffs, sand and sea themselves.
Scheduled Venues
Royal Academy of Arts: July 7-September 30, 2007
The Phillips Collection: October 20, 2007-January 13, 2008
Wadsworth Atheneum: February 9-May 11, 2008