CAILLEBOTTE AND RENOIR.

CAILLEBOTTE AND RENOIR. I was struck by the pairing of Renoir and Caillebotte in the Superbowl wager because it seems to me that their respective reputations have changed enormously in the last 50 years. Back then, it seemed to me that Renoir was considered to be the most important of the Impressionists with Monet a lesser figure and Caillebotte off the radar screen. I think Renoir has been disfavored in part because his works were reproduced a lot and not very well and his colors came to seem too sweet. Here is a Renoir painting which shows what he could do. The large Caillebotte painting at the head of the staircase which dominates the entrance of the Art Institute in Chicago has made Caillebotte a major figure for me.