The Flower Market 

Curator: Looking at "The Flower Market," ostensibly by Victor Gabriel Gilbert, I'm immediately struck by the overall light, airy feel. It’s almost weightless. Editor: Gilbert seems to have captured the vibrant energy of Parisian street life here. We are seeing how markets were turning into popular attractions. Do you think that paintings of the everyday promoted ideas of leisure, Editor? Curator: It definitely highlights a growing middle class with disposable income and the time for such leisurely pursuits. Note the fashionable dresses of the women depicted, symbols of the burgeoning consumer culture that shaped late nineteenth-century Paris. How do you respond to Gilbert's visual strategy here? Editor: I appreciate his command of Impressionistic techniques: loose brushstrokes, soft washes of color. But this wasn't done in oil; you can tell from how effortlessly pigment melds with untouched support. Notice how Gilbert uses diagonal lines and contrasting shapes to lead the eye from the foreground blooms toward the background figures and further away toward a pale blue sky. The use of watercolors emphasizes a fleeting impression, mirroring the ephemeral nature of flowers and market life itself. It’s rather ingenious, no? Curator: Absolutely. The deliberate placement of the flower stalls within the pictorial space also speaks to economic structures of the city, while the delicate rendering seems designed to appeal to bourgeois sensibilities and collectors who, then as now, were buying images and narratives they could recognize themselves in. Editor: Precisely, the contrast of rough textures from baskets filled with flowers in juxtaposition with the elegance of female garments really helps elevate the material while still ensuring nothing gets too distracting. There's no competition. The way he achieves a kind of dynamic unity using tonal subtleties throughout "The Flower Market" contributes to an intriguing overall effect! Curator: Very interesting indeed, giving us so much insight into not just artistic qualities, but cultural contexts, as well! Editor: Yes, analyzing composition, technique, color--this makes one recognize what a valuable piece of genre painting is.