The number of boaters in Caillebotte’s paintings diminishes towards his later works and in this Perissoire on the Yerres, he paints the man paddling all by himself. He creates a scene such that the paddler is leaving the buildings in the background with his face covered with the hat. Caillebotte secludes the paddler from the rest of society. The edifice in the background is the communal washhouse, the watering place, and landing stage at the Yerres, a central part of the community at the Yerres (Wittmer, 164). The boater is leaving the part of Yerres that stood for community and a search for companionship and cuts himself off from the world by covering his face with his hat. Caillebotte chooses a head-on view point similar to Perissoire on the Yerres with the paddlers facing the viewer, so that if there were any other boaters even near this one, they would be visible. This head on view makes it clear that the man is all alone. This sense of solitude portrayed by the lone paddler relates back to Caillebotte. He himself felt the separation he conveys in this painting of the paddler from the rest of the community. This painting shows Caillebotte’s admittance to his isolation from society.
Perissoires on the Yerres. Musee de Rennes. 1878.