Self-Portrait (Caillebotte)

The painter, in early middle age, regards us soberly in plain dark dress, and on the wall behind him hangs a glimpse of one of the Impressionist canvases he owned. Gustave Caillebotte was not only a painter but a wealthy collector and patron whose generosity helped sustain his friends and whose bequest brought their works into French museums. Now in the Musee d'Orsay, this self-portrait is quiet and unassuming - a candid, somewhat melancholy image of the man who, as much through his support as his own art, helped secure the future of Impressionism.