Caillebotte inherited the property at the Yerres, about 22 kilometers southwest of Paris, that his father bought in 1860 and where he used to vacation as a child (Lorenceau, 11). The region is named ‘Yerres’ after the six kilometer-long Yerres River that runs through it (Lorenceau, 18). At the time Yerres was a social town with a sense of community. According to Wittmer in Caillebotte an his Garden at Yerres, the river was a main part of the social scene at Yerres: “Beginning around this time the river…was a meeting place where ties were formed and a special life peculiar to the Yerres was carried on” (Wittmer, 166). The Yerres seemed to be a social community in which the people were closely knit. What made the river such a social place was the plethora of possible activities that the river presented. Specifically, its perissoires, a distinct form of rowing took place on the river. According to Varnedoe in Gustave Caillebotte: A Retrospective Exhibition, “Perissoires are fragile flat-bottomed skiffs. Less sophistocated than actual rowing sculls, but lighter and nimbler…they are propelled with a two-bladed kayak paddle” (Varnedoe, 124). This type of boating was a social activity. Caillebotte uses this pastime of paddling in perissoires, which is an activity of camaraderie done in a place that represented community, to sharply contrast his message of loneliness.
The Yerres, Effects of Rain. University of Indiana Art Museum. Bloomington, IN. 1875.