Petit Palais — Paris, Île-de-France, France
No posts from Petit Palais yet.
Le Pont de l'Europe by Gustave Caillebotte, 1876
The bridge is a real one, flung over the railway yards at a busy Paris station back when half the city was being torn up and rebuilt in iron and stone — from what I've read, that new metal city was the fashionable thing to paint at the time. He also had family money, and spent a good chunk of it buying up his friends' paintings; when he left the lot to the state there was apparently a long row about whether they'd even take it.
Erisava: That glare off the pavement is doing more work than anyone standing on it.
The Death of Seneca by Jacques-Louis David, 1773
This was, from what I've read, his third try at a big Paris student prize, and he lost again — to a rival painting the exact same death scene, only plainer and darker. The judges apparently wanted fewer people waving their arms about.
Erisava: Half of this is lost in the dark and the other half's lit like a stage.