later work of Gustave Caillebotte, Dans un Café (1880), helps strengthen the idea that to Caillebotte, feminine clothing was necessary solely to attract eligible women. In Dans un Café, Caillebotte's "urban stranger" while being somewhat separated from the other men in the picture is not truly isolated and this correlates with the fact that no women are depicted either. The urban stranger here is the man in the center of Dans un Café who wears characteristically mainstream masculine clothes: a very plain suit top that is so black it blends in with his tie, gray loose-fitting pants as opposed to the tighter flâneur favored variety, and most importantly the so-called "melon hat" (Cassin-Scott 165), the top of which is round like a bowl rather than flat as with the top hat. He does stand alone against the wall and through a reflection of the mirror besides him, we see he looks to a pair of men sitting across from each other at a table. In this way, he could be said to be "isolated" since spatially he is separated from the others. However, there is something different about this urban stranger. Unlike the paintings discussed earlier, we see this "urban stranger's" face instead of a just side profile. This serves to make him more open and connectable him to the viewer. Indeed, again unlike the other urban strangers, this man holds his head up to be seen instead of down. In terms of clothing, the "urban stranger" and one of the men sitting down share similar hats of the melon variety. Even the other man sitting down who wears a flâneur-characteristic top hat lacks any other overt difference in clothing from the urban stranger. Indeed they all wear fairly dark colors.
hy would Caillebotte mitigate the harshness of the isolation effect by drawing so many connections between the "urban stranger," the men at the table and the viewer? The key lies in the all-male environment. In going back to the motive that wearing feminine clothing was an attempt to express one's heterosexual desires, Caillebotte uses this painting to show that in all-male environments, wearing masculine clothing does not cause isolation. There simply is no need to intensify the isolation and "punish" the urban stranger because there are no women to woo.
erhaps as time went on for Caillebotte, the desire to make specific connections between feminine clothing and women needed not only affirmative depiction (in the form of isolation in the essay's paintings) but also contradictory depiction in this painting. Both types say one thing, "the flâneur isn't gay."
aillebotte's Rue de Paris; temps de pluie has two great examples of French fashion in the late nineteenth century. The flâneur in the front wears square-cut dresscoat evening suit with revers that stretch to the middle of his chest. The skirts of the coat reach almost to his knees and a hint of cuff fasteners can be seen on his left sleeve. His vest has a deep V-shape front with several buttons in front and his trousers are not creased, as that would not be fashionable until the 1890s. His shirt with a white, choker-type starched collar is fastened with a wide knotted tie. On top of his head is a very common black top hat made most likely with silk, however the flâneur doesn't have any gloves, which would normally be worn with this outfit. This mustache, slim and downward pointing is very characteristic however. It was also very common to carry a walking stick or umbrella outside (Cassin-Scott 182). This outfit was usually worn at night. Another common outfit would have been a similar shirt with a frock coat or the chesterfield overcoat, made of materials such as "miltons, worsteds and cheviots in subdued colors such as black, brown or grey. It usually had silk facings and was edged with braid" (Laver 205).
he woman by his side wears a close-fitting jacket bodice that widens near the bottom to make room for the hips. The sleeves have turn-back cuffs fastened most likely with buttons. Her double-breasted coat also comes with very small revers, perhaps made of fur, and is buttoned from neck to hem on the left side. She wears frilled ruffle around the neck and there is a hint of a light blue bow as well. Her overskirt is the same color as her coat and is straight in the front and was often draped towards the back. She carries the extra length in her hand because of the rain but usually it would hang to the ground. On her head is a large black bonnet (Cassin-Scott 184). There was a great variety of women's clothing in France in the late nineteenth century but the two kinds of outfits were either a jacket bodice and overcoat or what was known as "the Princess style" where everything was in one piece (Laver 192). Corsets were often needed for both types of dress. Dresses were often made of "wool, alpaca, velveteen and foulard" (Cassin-Scott 176). Also, linen and muslin were favorite fabrics as well. Dresses that appeared "full" came in and out of style, giving way to more straightened fronts and close fitting sleeves. Trains that were long became popular. Boots with high heels made with soft black leather also appeared on women, and they were usually buttoned or laced up at the sides (Cassin-Scott 178).
owever, Caillebotte's forced perspective arrangements have even been accused of being solely the reason for his isolation effects. Karen Wilkin, one such proponent, contends in her exhibition notes for the Gustave Caillebotte: Urban Impressionist exhibition at the Art Institute of Chicago, "The much-discussed presumed 'alienation' and 'melancholy' of Caillebotte's pictures are functions of his careful perspectival plotting, which tends to isolate figures rendered in 'correct proportion'?" (Wilkin 51).
et other aspects such as clothing difference, juxtaposition of the figures on the painting, and posture also contribute to the sense of isolation in the painting. Both movement and its direction may also serve to isolate the "urban stranger". The flâneur and his companion are walking whereas the urban stranger is standing still. Still, in terms of overall effect, the strange way the painting falsely creates a skewed perspective is an important way in which Caillebotte makes his statement.
ustave Caillebotte was born on August 19, 1848 on 77 Rue de Miromelnil, Paris. He grew up in one of the wealthiest parts of nineteenth-century Paris and played as a child in many of the scenes he would later paint, such as the Gare St. Lazare in Le Pont de l'Europe. After serving in the Franco-Prussian war of 1870-1871, Caillebotte decided he would pursue painting and studied under Léon Bonnat, who eventually sponsored Caillebotte's entrance into the Ecole des Beaux-Arts in 1873. Shortly afterward, Caillebotte got involved with the Impressionists when he met Edgar Degas and agreed to display his work at the Second Impressionist Exhibition. Eventually, he would take a leadership role in several of the following Exhibitions in 1877, 1879 and 1880. Though he saw his relationship with Degas become strained in the end over leadership disagreements, Caillebotte developed many close relationships with other Impressionists like Pierre-Auguste Renoir as well, who eventually became the executor of Caillebotte's estate.
Martial Caillebotte:
Gustave Caillebotte: Le Dejéuner. 1876. Private collection.
Gustave Caillebotte: Study of Le Pont de l'Europe.
Gustave Caillebotte: Le Pont de l'Europe. 1876. Geneva, Musée du Petit Palais.
Gustave Caillebotte: Rue de Paris; temps de pluie. 1877. Art Institute of Chicago.
Gustave Caillebotte: Self-portrait. 1892. Musee d'Orsay, Paris.
Gustave Caillebotte: Dans un Café. 1880. Rouen, Musée des Beaux-Arts.
o why is the correlation between the inclusion of a romantically connectable woman and the increased isolation of the "urban stranger" through his clothing important? The suggestive motive behind the flâneur fashion trend, that is the increased success of feminine clothing in connecting romantically with women, becomes apparent and this notion is contrary to our current perceptions of masculinity being solely attractive to women. More to the point, the idea is very much contrary to conservative ideas about clothing and how it related to sexual orientation in Caillebotte's own time. According to a French professor of legal review from that time, Ambroise Tadieu, who had published the first widely read book in France about homosexuals and sodomy in 1857 (going through seven editions until 1878), "preoccupation with clothing and coiffer are the external reflections of the "'true' homosexual" (Broude 134). Yet, Caillebotte's paintings seen as pressure to pay careful attention to clothing indicate the exact opposite, that clothing is a external reflection of a true heterosexual. Placing this within the context of Caillebotte's life and time, it becomes obvious that these depictions of social isolation were a means in which to justify his own flâneur lifestyle and clothing and even defend his sexuality. The period of the late 1860s through the early 1880s "was a period during which "¦ sexual practices on the one hand and social and personal identity on the other could no longer be comfortably separate" (Broude 120) and therefore, Caillebotte, whose "social identity" was that of flâneur, wished to connect the flâneur to heterosexual desire by depicting women as the motivating factor in dressing as a flâneur. In short, Caillebotte isolated his "urban strangers" in an attempt to justify feminization as a way to connect romantically with women not men. Therefore, bent on changing society's perceptions of his social identity, Caillebotte didn't just paint as an artist; he painted as a flâneur.]]>
efore examining Caillebotte's paintings, the flâneur and his relationship to contemporary fashion trends in men's clothing must be established. By the middle of the nineteenth century, Britain, France's principal foreign investor, had brought a new fashion trend called "dandyism" to France. In England, a dandy was a feminized male aristocrat with excellent social skills and fastidious taste in clothing (Herbert 34). The dandy's clothing would include extravagant items such as an English top hat, tight-fitting breeches or trousers, and a shirt with the collar worn upright, held in place by a cravat, a large square of material like silk or muslin, wrapped around the neck and tied in the front in a knot or bow (Laver 160). By the middle of the nineteenth century, the English dandy was eagerly adopted by the French upper class, which modified him into the flâneur. Describing the relationship between the two, Robert Herbert in his book Impressionism: Art, Leisure, and Parisian Society writes, "The dandy was not necessarily a flâneur, but the flâneur was almost always a dandy" (Herbert 34). By this Herbert means that the flâneur shared all the characteristics of the dandy but had other unique traits such as the power of subtle observation. The central characteristic of the dandy, his taste in extravagant clothing, however, remained with the flâneur (Herbert 34).