
by Gustave Caillebotte, 1875
Gustave Caillebotte painted The Floor Scrapers in 1875. Three shirtless workers kneel on a parquet floor, scraping the wood smooth with metal blades. Light streams through tall French windows, catching dust particles in the air. The men's muscular backs and arms show the physical strain of the work.
Caillebotte submitted this to the official Salon. The jury rejected it. Working-class labor was not considered a proper subject for serious painting. The artist focused on the geometry of floorboards converging toward the window and the rhythm of three bodies bent to the same task.
Musée d'Orsay in Paris now displays this once-rejected work prominently. Caillebotte's unflinching attention to manual labor set him apart from his fellow Impressionists. For figure studies, see figurative art.
Other masterpieces from the Impressionism movement
Claude Monet, 1899
The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York

Claude Monet, 1875
National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.

Pierre-Auguste Renoir, 1881
Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago

Claude Monet, 1926
Musée de l'Orangerie, Paris

James McNeill Whistler, 1871
Musée d'Orsay, Paris

Pierre-Auguste Renoir, 1881
National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.

Pierre-Auguste Renoir, 1881
The Phillips Collection, Washington, D.C.

Claude Monet, 1872
Musée d'Orsay, Paris
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