Caillebotte

One thing that I would like to say before I begin is that I've never heard of Caillebotte before, but I have to say that I'm now a fan of his! His paintings are wonderful! :) I love impressionism!

When it comes to the concept of modernity in Caillebotte's work I think that his art is leaning more towards critiquing modern life, but only because of the use of isolationism in his paintings. However I do think that he celebrated modern life in his paintings as well, just not as much. I can see this in his painting Fruit Displayed on a Stand. Between the vibrant colors and the abundance of the fruit it seems like he is celebrating the availability of fresh food, commerce, and trade. It's a very different painting in comparison to the other ones that I've seen. It's bright and lively, and makes it seem as if not everything is wrong in the world.

But back to the critiquing, I would have to say that Caillebotte's painting, A Traffic Island, Boulevard Haussmann is a prime example of it. In the painting he isn't celebrating the use of the space. Instead of showing it as a busy area, full of life and accomplishment, he shows it as a big and mostly empty space with a few people here and there, either going about their own business or just kind of standing around. I'm speaking of course about the 2 men standing on opposite ends of the traffic island, are they traffic officers? Because if they are they don't seem to have much of a purpose that day. Which is also odd because they are the people in the image with the highest contrast in comparison to the background, you'd think that they would be the most important part about the painting and yet they're not doing anything.

The bright background on the painting also makes it feel as if the traffic island would be a very hot place to be. There are practically no shadows in the area, so it gives off a rather unpleasant feeling, and because of that I wouldn't want to walk across it. Even though the colors are beautiful it's very stuffy. If Caillebotte was critiquing the area, I wonder if that's what he was going for. If he wanted to make the space not as grand as it actually is, and point out all of the flaws it has when it's not filled with people.