Steven Z. Levine, the Leslie Clark Professor in the Humanities and director of the Center for Visual Culture, Bryn Mawr College
Back Cover copy
The essays that comprise this volume employ a variety of perspectives to examine the ways in which Caillebotte's art sheds light on the formation of individual and class identities in Paris during the early years of the Third Republic-an era of transition marked by the triumph of capitalism and the instabilities of newly shifting gender roles in the modern world. Addressing a wide range of major paintings by Caillebotte, the contributors reveal the compound ways in which the artist encoded his images and the multiple interpretations to which these images are susceptible.
Juxtaposed to complement and challenge one another, these essays build a provocative whole as they probe issues of spectatorship and authorial intention. The contributors-all internationally known scholars and art professionals-create an important theoretical framework for the discussion of Caillebotte's work.
