Monday

"The Floor Scrapers" (1875) oil on canvas by Gustave Caillebotte

This is another painting I like from the "Birth of Impressionism" Exhibition. This painting is a mix of impressionism and realism. It looks almost real but then it is as if there had been a diaphanous scrim placed upon the scene, adding the artist's imagination to its meaning. : The three men on their knees, bent over with their tools in hand [one with his face turned upward]; the floor [with long long wooden boards and clumps of scraped wood and sunlight shining through the window]; the horizontal and curlicue lines along the back wall meeting the vertical lines of the flooring make for a kind of framing of this scene of these men stooped over and hard at work]. And then there is the bottle of wine and a glass seemingly filled next to it.