Skiffs

Gustave Caillebotte (1848-1894) was an Impressionist painter whose most distinctive works combine the formal composition of academic painting with the subject matter and color of Impressionism. Skiffs from 1877 depicts rowing boats on the Seine—a subject that was both a personal passion (Caillebotte was an avid oarsman) and an emblem of modern leisure. The painting's composition, with the skiffs arranged in a diagonal pattern across the canvas, demonstrates Caillebotte's ability to combine the informal subject matter of Impressionism with the rigorous compositional structure that he brought to every painting.

Caillebotte's rowing paintings are among the most distinctive works of the Impressionist movement because they combine a subject that no other Impressionist painted (competitive rowing) with a compositional rigor that no other Impressionist applied to informal subjects. The skiffs on the Seine are simultaneously a document of modern leisure and a composition of extraordinary formal sophistication.

Skiffs is Caillebotte's Impressionism with academic structure: rowing boats on the Seine arranged in a diagonal composition that no other Impressionist would have imposed on such an informal subject. The painting combines modern leisure with formal rigor—the oarsman's passion and the architect's eye working together.