The painting depicts one of the engineering marvels of Caillebotte’s day, an immense bridge spanning the rail yards of the Gare Saint-Lazare. Two men gaze through the massive iron trellises of the bridge toward the depot, the roof of which is glimpsed between the X-shaped girders at the right. Rather than cloaking the latticework of…

This emphasis on flatness and relatively large areas of mostly solid color is also a major feature of the Japanese prints that captivated the Impressionists and Post-Impressionists. The references to Japanese art and culture don’t end there as the chrysanthemums themselves were, as Met Museum curator, Jane R. Becker points out, “prized at the time…