Gustave Caillebotte, "The floor scraper"

Shaz,

Very cool. You're lucky to have seen it in person!

Larger image here: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/15/Les_Raboteurs_de_Parquet.jpg

Most translations seem to agree with "scraper", which is odd, since rabot is french for plane

I hadn't heard of him, but he's a pretty interesting guy: Caillebotte did make his debut in the second Impressionist exhibition in 1876 showing eight paintings including Floor-scrapers (1875), his earliest masterpiece. Its subject matter, the depiction of laborers preparing a wooden floor, was considered “vulgar” by some critics and is the probable reason why it was rejected by the Salon of 1875. At the time, the art establishment only deemed rustic peasants or farmers as acceptable subjects from the working class.

Anyway, thanks for pointing this out!

Thanks,

Bill
 
Top