Gustave Caillebotte’s famed artwork pays a visit to the US

The Louvre Abu Dhabi has loaned an artwork by Gustave Caillebotte to The National Gallery of Art in Washington.

A Game of Bezique by Gustave Caillebotte has been loaned to the National Gallery of Art in Washington. Courtesy Louvre Abu Dhabi, Photography: Agence Photo F

An impressionist painting from 1880 depicting a group of men playing a game of cards has become one of the first loans that Louvre Abu Dhabi has made to a foreign institution.
A Game of Bezique by Gustave Caillebotte, which was part of the inaugural exhibition of Louvre Abu Dhabi's permanent collection in April 2013, will now feature in an upcoming show at the National Gallery of Art, Washington.
The painting is one of 50 works in an exhibition dedicated to Caillebotte. Gustave Caillebotte: The Painter's Eye will provide visitors with a better understanding of his artistic character and the complexity of his contribution to modernist painting.
"Louvre Abu Dhabi's collection has been growing since 2009, with artworks encompassing various civilisations, dating from pre-history to our present day," says Céline Hullo-Pouyat, senior project manager, Louvre Abu Dhabi.
"Lending Louvre Abu Dhabi's artwork to international museums is part of the life of a museum; museums are part of worldwide networks to share outstanding collections and scientific expertise for the same mission – preserving, studying, and researching art for the benefit of societies and broad audiences."
"Caillebotte's paintings were inaccessible for almost a century and they are still hard to come by in public institutions," says Earl A Powell III, the director of Washington's National Gallery of Art. "For those interested in his work, there is no place to go to get a deep or broad sense of his achievement. We are thrilled to present this exhibition and accompanying publication to a new generation of art lovers and those hungry for another peek at his best works."
A Game of Bezique will be one of the first paintings that a viewer will see upon entering the exhibition, in a section dedicated to the bourgeois interiors of Paris that depicts street views and the new neighbourhoods that emerged around the 8th arrondissement during Napoleon III's massive urban renewal project of the 1850s and 1860s.
Portraits of friends, a collection of still-life paintings and two rarely seen self-portraits from private collections are also included.
After Washington, Gustave Caillebotte: The Painter's Eye will be at the Kimbell Art Museum in Fort Worth, Texas.
• Gustave Caillebotte: The Painter's Eye runs from June 28 to October 4 in Washington and in Texas from November 8 to February 14
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