A framed painting by Gustave Caillebotte entitled "Portrait of a Young Woman in an Interior".

Gustave Caillebotte (19 August 1848 to 21 February 1894) was a French painter, member and patron of the group of artists known as Impressionists, though he painted in a much more realistic manner than many other artists in the group. Caillebotte earned a law degree in 1868 and a licence to practise law in 1870. He was also an engineer. Shortly afterwards, he was drafted to fight in the Franco-Prussian war, and served in the Garde Nationale Mobile de la Seine. Caillebotte made his artistic debut in the second Impressionist exhibition in 1876 showing eight paintings. His sizable allowance, along with the inheritance he received after the death of his father in 1874 and his mother in 1878, allowed him to paint without the pressure to sell his work. It also allowed him to help fund Impressionist exhibitions and support his fellow artists and friends, including Claude Monet, Auguste Renoir, and Camille Pissarro among others, by purchasing their works and, at least in the case of Monet, paying the rent for their studios.