TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 18, 2025 
Caillebotte Masterpiece Surpasses €1 Million at Auction
A remarkable result has greeted this Impressionist painting, Pommiers en fleurs, Petit Gennevilliers (1892), presented by Auction Art – Rémy le Fur & Associés.
Initially estimated at €300,000–400,000, the work far exceeded expectations, soaring to €1.15 million after a prolonged and hard-fought bidding battle. It had remained in the same family collection since 1960.
The painting also preserves the memory of a bucolic landscape now vanished: that of Petit Gennevilliers, known as “l’Île aux Draps”, between the Pont d’Argenteuil and Colombes, where Caillebotte purchased a country house in 1880. A familiar haunt of his Impressionist friends, the site offered an open view over the Seine and a luxuriant garden that — with a touch of nostalgia — recalls the formative years he spent in Yerres.
The painting also preserves the memory of a bucolic landscape now vanished: that of Petit Gennevilliers, known as “l’Île aux Draps”, between the Pont d’Argenteuil and Colombes, where Caillebotte purchased a country house in 1880. A familiar haunt of his Impressionist friends, the site offered an open view over the Seine and a luxuriant garden that — with a touch of nostalgia — recalls the formative years he spent in Yerres.
From 1887 onwards, Caillebotte settled there permanently after buying back his brother Martial’s share of the property. He designed a large garden, which he cultivated with real passion. This residence, both a retreat and an experimental ground, became a veritable laboratory for observing nature — and an extension of his studio.
In Pommiers en fleurs (1892), Caillebotte captures the fleeting moment of blossoming at the heart of this carefully tended landscape. The work reflects his command of light and colour, and reveals the influence of his neighbour and friend Claude Monet, based in Giverny, with whom he shared a bold approach to chromatic exploration. The painting, serene yet deeply affecting, carries the quiet tenderness of a farewell.
Two years later, Caillebotte died suddenly of a cerebral congestion, in the very midst of the trees and flowers he had planted. It is hard to look at these apple trees without recalling this poignant coincidence: in painting the spring bloom, the artist unknowingly foreshadowed his own end. Caillebotte’s apple trees thus become far more than a pictorial motif — a meditation on passing time, a silent vanitas in which the brightest beauty already bears the seed of its disappearance.
In Pommiers en fleurs (1892), Caillebotte captures the fleeting moment of blossoming at the heart of this carefully tended landscape. The work reflects his command of light and colour, and reveals the influence of his neighbour and friend Claude Monet, based in Giverny, with whom he shared a bold approach to chromatic exploration. The painting, serene yet deeply affecting, carries the quiet tenderness of a farewell.
Two years later, Caillebotte died suddenly of a cerebral congestion, in the very midst of the trees and flowers he had planted. It is hard to look at these apple trees without recalling this poignant coincidence: in painting the spring bloom, the artist unknowingly foreshadowed his own end. Caillebotte’s apple trees thus become far more than a pictorial motif — a meditation on passing time, a silent vanitas in which the brightest beauty already bears the seed of its disappearance.
