Le Pont de l'Europe
Dublin Core
Title
Le Pont de l'Europe
Subject
Railway and Industry in Paris: a class experience
Description
The Pont de l’Europe overlooks the Gare Saint-Lazare, portrayed famously by Monet. In Le Pont, Caillebotte comments on the interaction of bourgeoisie and working-class Parisians with industry and the railroad. On the left of the scene is a grand boulevard accompanied, in the center, by a sidewalk. The focal point are two Parisians, whose “expensive dress and position in the center of the boulevard sidewalk clearly denote them as members of the upper class, flaneurs to engage in the new realm of socialization and leisure created by the wide avenue upon which they stroll” (Fallone 42). They walk passively and freely, taking in the modern city through a leisurely stroll – both seeing and wanting to be seen. To the right of the couple, is one man in particular who leans on the rigid, steel railway bridge structure that spans the entirety of the canvas from the foreground to background. The man, in his plain dress work clothes (gray in comparison to the fancy black of the upper class pair), is an industrial laborer overlooking the heavily industrial scape below the bridge.
Caillebotte portrays the irony of the modern experience as both the couple and the laborer are engaging in leisure, but it is “of course the hard worker of the latter, in the rapidly growing realm of industry that allows for the response centered lifestyle of the well-dressed pair” (Fallone 40). The worker, presumably on a break, seems to contemplate his role and place in the city. He is integrated with a massive steel cross-barred structure and focuses his attention on the industry of the railway below. He is “tied” to this bridge and his work, demonstrating the lack of freedom for working-class people to engage, enjoy, and experience the city in the same carefree (yet performative) ways the upper-class flaneur can. The man stands in the shadows, physically and metaphorically. As a laborer, his work goes unnoticed and unappreciated by many Parisians like the bourgeois couple behind. Caillebotte is demonstrating this tension of modern Paris, both in the transformation through Haussmannization as depicted by the “deliberately ugly” stark geometric lines and in the disparate experiences of working-class and upper-class Parisians (Herbert).
Caillebotte portrays the irony of the modern experience as both the couple and the laborer are engaging in leisure, but it is “of course the hard worker of the latter, in the rapidly growing realm of industry that allows for the response centered lifestyle of the well-dressed pair” (Fallone 40). The worker, presumably on a break, seems to contemplate his role and place in the city. He is integrated with a massive steel cross-barred structure and focuses his attention on the industry of the railway below. He is “tied” to this bridge and his work, demonstrating the lack of freedom for working-class people to engage, enjoy, and experience the city in the same carefree (yet performative) ways the upper-class flaneur can. The man stands in the shadows, physically and metaphorically. As a laborer, his work goes unnoticed and unappreciated by many Parisians like the bourgeois couple behind. Caillebotte is demonstrating this tension of modern Paris, both in the transformation through Haussmannization as depicted by the “deliberately ugly” stark geometric lines and in the disparate experiences of working-class and upper-class Parisians (Herbert).
Creator
Gustave Caillebotte
Source
Fallone, Emma. “Art as a Window Into the Past: Impressionist views of Haussman’s Paris.” The Yale Historical Review, 2015. https://historicalreview.yale.edu/sites/default/files/yhr_fall_2015_web.pdf
Ostergaard, Tyler Edward. "The Beast within: The Contested Image of the Railroad in French Visual Culture, 1837-1877." Order No. 10181777 The University of Iowa, 2014. Ann Arbor: ProQuest. Web. 10 May 2022.
Herbert, Robert L. Impressionism: Art, Leisure, and Parisian Society. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1988. Print.
Ostergaard, Tyler Edward. "The Beast within: The Contested Image of the Railroad in French Visual Culture, 1837-1877." Order No. 10181777 The University of Iowa, 2014. Ann Arbor: ProQuest. Web. 10 May 2022.
Herbert, Robert L. Impressionism: Art, Leisure, and Parisian Society. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1988. Print.
Date
1876
Contributor
Sofia Petrulla
Relation
https://kimbellart.org/collection/ap-198201
On the Pont de l’Europe, Kimbell Art Museum
https://www.albrightknox.org/artworks/197425-%C3%A9tude-pour-le-pont-de-leurope-study-le-pont-de-leurope
Study for Le Pont de l'Europe
On the Pont de l’Europe, Kimbell Art Museum
https://www.albrightknox.org/artworks/197425-%C3%A9tude-pour-le-pont-de-leurope-study-le-pont-de-leurope
Study for Le Pont de l'Europe
Citation
Gustave Caillebotte, “Le Pont de l'Europe,” Cornell ARTH 3625/6625, accessed May 16, 2024, https://cornellcolab.net/pariscaptialofmodernity/items/show/5664.