“Le Pont de L’Europe”
For today, the talented Gustave Caillebotte…
“Le Pont de L’Europe” is a beautiful oil on canvas painting by the French artist, Gustave Caillebotte, from 1876. Though mostly associated with the Impressionist art movement, Caillebotte’s art is more of a combination of Realism and Impressionism. Caillbotte made two oil sketches of this scene before he finalized his subject.
“Le Pont de L’Europe”, or the Europe Bridge, depicts what is today referred to as the Place de l’Europe. This elevated plaza, or viaduct, is located in the 8th arrondissement of Paris just north of the River Seine. Six avenues join together at this junction. Each avenue is named after a European capital. It is seated over railroad tracks that run to the Gare de St. Lazare. Caillebotte painted many urban Paris scenes. He was interested in painting the warm sunlight against the cool tones of the urban landscape.
The painting features three figures in the foreground in addition to a dog. A man is looking over the side of the bridge to the scene below. Much speculation has been made regarding the identity of the couple walking towards the viewer. Some believe it to be Caillebotte himself and his woman companion, Anne-Marie Hagen; while others think it is simply a rich man with a prostitute. The X-shaped struts depicted so authentically were replaced in 1931 to the current architecture still extant today.
One of the most striking things about this piece is the perspective, which Caillebotte was a master at painting. The vanishing point is just behind the head of the man walking towards us, and the offset location of the vanishing point far to the left almost makes the perspective look exaggerated with its highly oblique angle. Caillebotte showed an early interest in photography as an art form. Many critics believe his interest in photography shaped the composition of his works, particularly in terms of perspective, angled ground, and a higher vantage point.
This piece was first displayed in the 1877 Impressionism exhibition in Paris, France. Caillebotte was just 28 when it was exhibited. He would only exhibit his art until he was 34 years old.
“Le Pont de L’Europe” is currently in the collections of the Musée du Petit Palais in Geneva, Switzerland. The museum closed in 1998 after the death of Oscar Ghez who founded the museum. Since then, the collection has been touring to other museums for exhibition.
For more on Gustave Caillebotte, please visit his short biography here.
You can find more artists to learn about here.
