Gustave Caillebotte
Caillebotte used the Paris auction house to buy the work of painters who could not sell, paying proper prices and so supporting both the artists and the visible market for Impressionist work.
Hôtel Drouot
Rebuilt on the site
Walk straight in
Still the same
The Paris auction house where Gustave Caillebotte bid on his friends' unsellable pictures to keep prices up and money flowing — and where Paul Gauguin sold thirty of his own paintings to pay for Tahiti.
- 9 rue Drouot, 75009 Paris
- The Paris auction house since 1852
Illustration
The place, briefly
The Hôtel Drouot has been the auction house of Paris since 1852, and almost everything that has changed hands in the French art market has passed through its rooms at some point.
Gustave Caillebotte's role there was unusual. He had inherited a large fortune, and he used it at Drouot and elsewhere to buy the work of painters who could not sell — Monet, Renoir, Pissarro, Degas, Cézanne, Manet. He paid properly rather than cheaply, which supported both the artists and the visible price of their work at a moment when a collapse in either would have been serious.
That collection became the Caillebotte bequest, and its acceptance by the French state after his death in 1894 was contested for years. What the state eventually took now forms a substantial part of the Impressionist holdings in Paris. Caillebotte's own paintings were largely forgotten in the process; he was remembered as a patron for most of a century before being looked at again as a painter.
The saleroom has another claim on the period too: in 1891 Paul Gauguin auctioned thirty of his own canvases here to raise the fare to Tahiti.
The present building replaced the nineteenth-century halls in the 1970s. Viewings remain free and open, which makes it one of the easier art-world interiors in Paris to walk into.
Key facts
- The principal Paris auction house, since 1852
- Bought his friends' unsold work at proper prices, supporting both artists and market
- The Caillebotte bequest, contested for years before the state accepted part of it
- Gauguin's 1891 sale of thirty paintings to fund the Tahiti voyage
- Rebuilt in the 1970s on the same site
- Viewings are free and open to the public
In images
Timeline
The Hôtel Drouot opens as the Paris auction house.
Caillebotte buys Impressionist work that the market will not take.
Gauguin auctions thirty of his paintings to pay for the voyage to Tahiti.
Caillebotte dies; the bequest of his collection to the state begins years of argument.
On the map
Questions before you go
Can you visit the Hôtel Drouot?
Yes. Pre-sale viewings are free and open to anyone, which makes it unusually accessible for a working auction house.
What was the Caillebotte bequest?
The Impressionist collection Caillebotte assembled and left to the French state at his death in 1894. Its acceptance was disputed for years, and what the state took forms a major part of the Impressionist holdings in Paris today.
People who knew this place
Within walking distance
Grand Hôtel de Russie, 1 rue Drouot
The vanished hotel on the corner of the rue Drouot and the Grands Boulevards where Camille Pissarro took a large room in February 1897 and painted sixteen canvases of the boulevards below without moving.
Visit the place
Salle Le Peletier
The theatre that housed the Paris Opera until it burned down in 1873. Its stage, rehearsal rooms and subscribers' foyer are the world behind Degas's dancers — and he went on painting it from memory long after it was ash.
Visit the place
Galerie Durand-Ruel, 11 rue Le Peletier
Paul Durand-Ruel's gallery, where the second Impressionist exhibition was held in 1876 — the dealer who kept buying the group's work through the years when almost nobody else would.
Visit the place
Boussod, Valadon & Cie, 19 boulevard Montmartre
The Boussod, Valadon gallery on the boulevard Montmartre, where Berthe Morisot was given her first solo exhibition in 1892 — at the age of fifty-one, and three years before her death.
Visit the placeReferences
References
The sources below include histories, archival materials, scholarly research, and official records that informed this page. They document Hôtel Drouot, the people connected to it, and its place in Paris.
1Le legs Caillebotte (Fanny Matz) — Musée d'Orsay magazine, October 2024
WebsiteMusée d'OrsayUsed forWeb source consulted for documented facts and historical context presented on the Hôtel Drouot page.
2Gustave Caillebotte — Encyclopaedia Britannica
WebsiteEncyclopaedia BritannicaUsed forWeb source consulted for documented facts and historical context presented on the Hôtel Drouot page.
3Gustave Caillebotte: Painting Men — exhibition presentation, Musée d'Orsay
WebsiteMusée d'OrsayUsed forWeb source consulted for documented facts and historical context presented on the Hôtel Drouot page.
4Paul Gauguin (1848–1903)
WebsiteNational Gallery, LondonUsed forWeb source consulted for documented facts and historical context presented on the Hôtel Drouot page.
5The History of the Hôtel Drouot Told in an Exhibition
WebsiteLa Gazette DrouotUsed forWeb source consulted for documented facts and historical context presented on the Hôtel Drouot page.
6The Founding of the Auction House Hôtel Drouot 1852 in Paris
WebsiteForum Kunst und MarktUsed forWeb source consulted for documented facts and historical context presented on the Hôtel Drouot page.
i
Why these sources are here
These references provide the documented foundation for this page's history and context. Claim-level citations remain attached to the specific claims they support.
Explore more resourcesNewsletter
Paris, one address at a time.
The cafés, studios, and walk-up flats where the work was made — one story from the map in every letter.