[From the Community Collection, a public trust in Agincourt, Iowa]

CAILLIBOTTE, Mari Oanez [born 1931]

Rooftops in Red and Blue

ca1950

oil on canvas panel / 26.9cm x 36.1cm (10.6 inches x 14.2 inches)

The family of Mari(e) Caillibotte were natives of Saint-Brieuc, a coastal town in the French province of Brittany. Marie came to the U.S. early in World War II for temporary refuge from the impending arrival of German forces; her family were involved in the growing French underground and feared for their minor children. The connection to Agincourt, Iowa was not through the Catholic church, as we might imagine, but a humanist organization connected with her parents and The Why, a group of “Freethinkers” active in our community. On her return to France at the conclusion of the war, Marie sent this painting to her host family the Anhausers, Ernest and Estelle, who subsequently gave the painting to the Community Collection, along with a cluster of the letters exchanged between these two families in the years following.

The subject of her painting is unspecified, though presumably urban, perhaps from unfamiliar images experiences during her travel to and from the U.S. The color palette of red, white and blue, may relate to the common colors of the American flag and the French tri-color. When Marie married (in about 1955, we believe), she named her first child, a daughter, Estelle.