Yerres: all you need to know about the family property of the painter Gustave Caillebotte: Femme Actuelle Le MAG

A romantic Eden

Designed in fashionable taste around 1830 by a wealthy Parisian, the estate bordered by Yerres deploys, in front of a Palladian (neo-Roman) style residence, an English park, its woods and meadows. Winding paths lead to an oriental kiosk on a promontory housing an icehouse, Swiss chalet, farm, aviaries … Martial Caillebotte, new owner in 1860, added a chapel, an orangery, a landing stage, flower beds and a vegetable garden. A Japanese tea bench was installed at the beginning of the 20th century.

The property has the Maison des illustres label and its park is classified for its remarkable trees. Kelian8 / Wikimedia Commons

The vegetable garden

Maintained by five gardeners, the half-hectare vegetable garden inspired one of Martial Caillebotte's children: Gustave, aged twelve when his father set up this summer residence. He immortalized it in many paintings. But he first discovered a passion for gardening there, which he developed during his life and until his last home in Gennevilliers. Painting and nature mingle closely, as with his colleague and friend Claude Monet, with whom he exchanges plants and advice. For twenty years, an association yerroise cultivates again the vegetable garden, according to the paintings of Caillebotte.

The vegetable garden. Kelian8 / Wikimedia Commons

A unique style

Until sale of the property after the death of his parents in 1879, Gustave Caillebotte came to spend the summer there. He painted eighty canvases there, in an innovative style compared to the Impressionist movement to which he belongs. The decorative panels of a door of his living room in Gennevilliers representing his favorite flowers (the orchids that he collects in a greenhouse) would have inspired, it is said, Monet for his Water lilies. The town of Yerres, owner of the premises, hosts exhibitions and artist residences in the Orangery and the Ornate Farm, in tribute to Caillebotte's patronage. Gardening cut the painter's life short. He died of pulmonary congestion at the age of 45, having cooled off in the garden where he pruned his roses.

The Roses, Petit-Gennevilliers garden (1886). The artist paints Charlotte Berthier, his partner. Wikimedia Commons

The banks of the Yerres

The river runs alongside the property and contributes to its freshness in summer. The Yerres, a tributary of the Seine about twenty kilometers upstream from the capital, attracted wealthy Parisians from the 18th century onwards in search of a country resort. Water sports developed in the 19th century, to the delight of the Caillebotte. The famous Bather getting ready to dive, Les Périssoires and Boaters on the Yerres fix the memory. In Gennevilliers, the painter, who became a naval architect, will participate successfully in regattas. He designs and has more than twenty sailboats made, some of which bear names evocative of his other passion for the garden: Lizard, The Pickaxe, Bean.

Meeting with Cécile Lhuillier, head gardener

What flowers do you plant in the field?

We plant and maintain flowerbeds according to the paintings, correspondence and photos of the Caillebotte family. We have the project to restore the disappeared rose garden by choosing old species. We also respect the color code of yesteryear around the predominance of red and white. At the entrance to the property, the two colors dominate in the beds, for example for chrysanthemums in November.

What is the influence of the Yerres river?

It runs along the property, but it also enters it by two small arms of water. One borders the large meadow and the other crosses the wooded park. They are animated by a cheerful fauna: fish, ducks and moorhens.

Does the garden receive a lot of public?

Yes, all year round and he can walk there, picnic in the meadow and canoe on the river. We are twenty minutes from Paris by RER. Accompanied children are invited to garden. In November, they plant the bulbs.

proprietecaillebotte.fr

Read also :

⋙ Jean Giono, the taste of Provence
⋙ All you need to know about the Postman Cheval Palace
⋙ Visit: discover Albert Kahn's garden in Boulogne-Billancourt

Article published in the issue Femme Actuelle Jeux Histoire n ° 16 November-December 2020