Floor Scrapers

On this day in 1848, Gustave Caillebotte, a French painter, member and patron of the artists known as Impressionists, was born. He is one of my favorite painters; I'm very happy that today we can present to you his most famous work, The Floor Scrapers.

This painting is one of the first representations of the urban proletariat. Whereas peasants or country workers had often been shown, city workers had seldom been painted. But here, Caillebotte does not incorporate any social, moralizing, or political message in his work. His thorough documentary study justifies his position among the most accomplished realists.

The painting divided opinion in Parisian art circles. Among the detractors, Emile Porchoron, a critic of Impressionism, damned Caillebotte with faint praise: "the least bad of the exhibition. One of the missions Impressionism seems to have set for itself is to torture perspective: you see here what results can be obtained." Émile Zola praised the technical execution, but then called it "an anti-artistic painting, painting as neat as glass, bourgeois painting, because of the exactitude of the copying." Louis Énault was not troubled by the depiction ("The subject matter is certainly vulgar, but we can understand how it might tempt a painter") but did find fault with the image's fidelity to the scene: "I only regret that the artist did not choose his types better... The arms of the planers are too thin, and their chests too narrow... may your nude be handsome or don't get involved with it!."

See you tomorrow!

P.S. Gustave Caillebotte was a master of urban intimacy, see Paris' beautiful interiors and flowery balconies here.  <3