At first glance this painting seems to be a typical urban scene, but on closer inspection, some questions may arise. Viewers in the era who were familiar with this site would have known that the perspective was manipulated. Claude Ghez, President of the Petit Palais in Geneva and the owner of this painting, conducted the research that’s presented here in the video. Ghez and his team documented the original architectural structure and found that the artist, Gustave Caillebotte combined three different views in a single composition, making the bridge look far more towering than it really was.
According to Ghez’s research, Caillebotte was horrified by the experience of the Franco-Prussian War, and he channeled those emotions into this painting. Major battles occurred on this bridge, and the distant figure in the blue and red uniform is a soldier. The distorted perspective invokes the anxious tension of the modern city. This artwork was painted before the Eiffel Tower was built, so the mass of iron shown here would have raised memories of war rather than visions of progress. It shows that compositional choices can hold many layers of meaning
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