Young Man at his Window

Caillebotte painted many domestic and family scenes, interiors and portraits. Many of his paintings depict members of his family; Young Man at his Window shows the artist's brother, René Caillebotte, wearing informal clothes and standing at a window of the family home in Rue de Miromesnil in Paris, looking outwards onto Boulevard de Malesherbes (the large, oblique street in the background). In its theme of a figure seen from behind at an open window, the composition has precedents in German Romanticism, a notable example being Caspar David Friedrich's Woman at the Window. Caillebotte presented this painting at the second Impressionism exhibition in 1876.