Gustave Caillebotte realistically represented 19th-century urban life in one of his most important works, “Raboteurs de Parquet” (“The Floor Scrapers”). Depicting the interior of Caillebotte’s (1848 – 1894) Paris apartment, this scene of three shirtless workmen stripping varnish off the floor was so scandalous, it was refused exhibition at the Paris Salon, which also deemed images of all workers, except peasants, unacceptable. Slyly interjecting social commentary into his works, Caillebotte may have been insinuating that underneath the varnished floors the upper class took for granted were many hours of grueling labor.

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