Young Man at His Window has been impeccably studied alongside its contemporary Interior, Women at the Window, which was painted 4 years later. Both paintings capture the cityscape and post-Commune from an elevated perspective, but render diverging levels of agency in respect to the window. The painter is interested in illustrating the juxtaposition between decorative trappings and open spaces along newly paved streets, with the Parisian caught in between. Inside, the bourgeois is safe, from capitalism, but is also reminded of its power because of the furnishings that flood the private space, further drawing attention to the agency that the individual seems to be losing.While René overshadows the composition in Young Man at His Window, the subject of the latter is a tentative woman.The viewer observes the subject’s preoccupation with a scene they are separated from by ...
[https://lavantegardiste.wordpress.com/2016/07/27/gustave-caillebotte-jeune-homme-a-la-fenetre-puissance-ou-pas/]