Thoughts on Painting of Modern Life

The article starts out saying that it is “tempting to see a connection between the modernization of Paris… and the new painting of the time.” Immediately I wondered what modernization the author were referring to and what the new paintings of the time were. The author elaborates throughout the article about how Haussmann played a very significant role in ‘painting’ the modern life of Paris. Haussmann had visions of rebuilding the city of Paris as described at the top of page 38, and to move toward a more capitalistic society. The modernization of Paris seemed to have created a more homogenized city. The emphasis of the change seemed to focus the city as a whole unity, instead of the old Paris which was focused highly on the inner and outer city, the upper and lower class. The separation of classes of the rich and poor became less evident as the poor now had the money to imitated or pretend to be the like the rich. The line between the rich and the poor was then not so certain; I think it was this uncertainty that led to the ambiguous paintings by Edouard Manet and other painters described in the chapter.
The paintings of the modern life has a certain style such that the paintings focused less on the individual persons, but the whole place and event of the painting itself. For example, the painting on page 48 titled “Un Bal masque a l’Opera”. Little can be said about what each individual is doing, but looking at everyone together in a more general way gives you a better scene of what the artist is trying to depict in their ambiguous paintings. And as for the question Karen brought up about the quote “life turns back to become public”, I also thought about what that might have meant. What I thought the author was relating to was that the changes in the social classes due to capitalism which allowed the different classes to intermingle, and this became an opportunity for people with social different background to experience life as another person with a different social background would, resulting in life turning back to become public.