Gustave Caillebotte: The Floor Scrapers (1875)

(Musée d'Orsay, Paris, France)

A painting by the French artist Gustave Caillebotte (1848 - 1894). Three men are busy in a room, probably the studio of the artist at 77 Rue de Miromesnil in Paris. They are scraping the wooden floor so that a new cover can be put on, a common procedure if you have hardwood floors in your house and want them to look nice again after a decade or so. The painting caused some controversy as some art critics considered the painting to be a 'vulgar subject matter'. Painting from 1875.