屋根の眺め

Snow lies on the rooftops of Montmartre, seen from high above, all in quiet greys. Few French painters had looked at Paris this way.

The story behind the painting

Caillebotte painted Vue de toits (Effet de neige), View of rooftops (Effect of snow), during the winter of 1878 to 1879. He made many paintings of Paris from unexpected viewpoints, such as a street seen from indoors in Young Man at His Window of 1875, or the exaggerated perspective of Paris Street, Rainy Day of 1877. Here he looked down from a high vantage point, possibly a balcony, over snow-covered roofs in Montmartre.

What to look for

Caillebotte uses a largely monochrome palette of greys and adds touches of colour only to bring out features of the buildings: chimneys, dormers and the slopes of the roofs under snow. Wikipedia gives the canvas as 81 by 65 cm, while Wikidata lists 64 by 82 cm. This kind of perspective was not at all common in French painting, and Caillebotte may have been inspired by the photographs of Hippolyte Bayard.

Meaning and intent

There is no street life here, no figures, only roofs and the hush of snow. By choosing a view that most painters ignored, Caillebotte turns the everyday tops of the city into a subject worth contemplating, a winter Paris seen as its residents might glimpse it from a window, calm and grey. The greys of the snow and the slate carry the whole picture, and the small accents of colour feel like signs of life hidden under the roofs. It is a view that rewards slow looking.

Legacy

The painting was first shown at the fourth Impressionist Exhibition in Paris in 1879, one of 25 works Caillebotte brought. The crowds preferred his portraits and boating scenes, but this canvas and another rooftop view in that show are now considered important works. His brother gave it to the Musee du Luxembourg in 1894. It moved to the Louvre in 1929, the Jeu de Paume in 1947 and the Musee d'Orsay in 1986, one of the few Caillebotte works that have stayed in public view since his death.