On the Pont de l'Europe
by CAILLEBOTTE, Gustave, Oil on canvas, 106 x 131 cm
This painting, which crops passers-by on the bridge spanning the Gare Saint-Lazare’s track approach, is interesting not least for the alert regard Caillebotte the engineer had for the new technology. He did several meticulous studies towards two versions of the painting. The lines of receding perspective in Caillebotte’s work can often draw us with a disquieting violence into a picture’s spatial depth: his perspective recalls the engineer’s drawing board.