Picazzo, the mad painter!
[a.k.a. the man who painted music while listening to paintings] [27 out of 40]

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A balcony. Boulevard Haussmann - Gustave Caillebotte (circa 1880)

"A balcony. Boulevard Haussmann" is an oil on canvas, 69 x 62 cm, by Gustave Caillebotte, belonging to a private collection.
On an elegant balcony stand two men, one of whom, leaning over the railing to look at the boulevard below adorned with green trees, is fully dressed with a top hat; the other man has one hand in his pocket and leans against the wall of the building, yet his gaze is directed in the same direction. The boulevard reflects the city's renewal, with elegant buildings, wide and straight streets, and trees—basically, the Paris of the late 1800s projecting into the new century.
The balcony, much like the window, is one of the privileged spots to portray the imposing city from above, often featuring the windowsill or the balustrade, and the preference for this framing is partly inherited from Monet, whose Boulevard des Capucines is compared by Aaron Scharf and Alfredo De Paz to the numerous aerial views created by Caillebotte. With this setup, the Parisian painter not only considers the stereoscopic photography of Jouvin but also anticipates the work of Moholy Nagy, who claimed that "the charm of the image lies not in the object, but in the view from above and in well-considered relationships." Through these canvases, Caillebotte celebrated novelty, the development of the arts and technology, making boulevards, streetlights, bridges, benches, and whatever else adorned the city the protagonists of his paintings. [source bta.it]

Associated LP of 1983