On the Pont de l'Europe

This famous bridge in the French capital, Paris, was captured in several Gustave Caillebotte paintings, each time from a different angle and arrangement of figures.

Le Pont de l'Europe is the more famous depiction, and that captures the bridge from a wider angle. This painting zooms into specific features of the bridge and provides a closer detail on individual figures. The composition itself is unusual, at first seemingly almost at random, with several people have cropped out and a non-descript section of the bridge chosen. This was entirely deliberate, of course, because it allows the viewer to understand who is the central figure and provides full focus to them alone.

The central gentleman, well dressed, looks on across into the distance through an open section in the bridge. In the background one can just about make out what he is looking at. There appears to be a train line with single train hurtling along that catches his eye. This would match what we know about the bridge itself and what would have been in its local vicinity at that time. The subject opens his shoulders slightly which allows us to feel closer to him and feel closer to what he is doing.

The urban paintings of Caillebotte were frequently produced from fairly narrow palettes of relatively subdued colours where as he preferred a brighter look when confronting nature on the outskirts of Paris. As a keen gardener he may have prefered the rural regions of his native France, but could still find beauty within a sprawling city such as this.