Yerres, Dark Bay Horse in the Stable 1878

Editor: Okay, so here we have Gustave Caillebotte's "Yerres, Dark Bay Horse in the Stable," painted in 1878. It's oil on canvas, and it really gives off a sense of quiet strength, I think. There's something really beautiful in the mundane. What jumps out at you about it? Curator: It's true, isn't it? A sort of profound stillness. It's interesting how Caillebotte uses the Impressionistic style not for landscapes buzzing with life, but to capture this rather stoic, almost melancholy, creature. Does the horse seem relaxed to you? Or perhaps just resigned? Editor: I'm not sure. I mean, he doesn’t seem agitated, but… resigned, maybe? What makes you say that? Curator: Look at the light; how it glances off the horse’s flank. Notice, too, the sharp contrast with the shadowy interior of the stable. There is this incredible painterly language, but consider what the image is portraying. We are talking about industrialization, of course, but the artists, too, are considering life behind stable doors and asking themselves 'how free is this life, really'? What does it mean to be held? Do you think the artist wants you to ponder this tension? Editor: I hadn't considered the industrialization angle. I guess I was just focusing on the horse as a subject. Curator: Exactly! And that's precisely what Caillebotte wants us to do: connect emotionally with the animal. Feel its… predicament. To engage with a fine animal, perhaps to wonder: How do its dreams feel from inside that stall? Does it feel beauty when the sun streaks over its back? Editor: That’s a really moving way to think about it. I usually focus on the artist’s technique, but I guess there's a whole world of feeling that can be communicated in a single horse portrait. Curator: Absolutely. Art invites us to inhabit different perspectives, to feel with others—even, and perhaps especially, with creatures great and small. A dark bay, or any other!