Young Man at His Window

A closer look

The man is the painter's brother René, in the family apartment on rue de Miromesnil, in the new Paris created by Baron Haussmann. We see what he sees: the wide boulevard, the grand stone apartment buildings, the iron balcony, the empty street. The contrast between the dim interior and the bright outside, and between the solid, still figure and the vast space, creates a feeling of solitude and observation. Like many of Caillebotte's works, it captures the experience of the modern city as seen by an elegant, detached observer.