The Balloon (Le Ballon)

This monumental canvas records a moment of rest and wonder. Six peasants take pause from their labor in the fields to observe the appearance of a large hot air balloon high in the sky. The positions of the nearly life-size figures, with their backs to the observer, are meant to draw the viewer into the composition in a participatory role. The viewer is prompted to look up into the sky and behold the wonder of the balloon with the group of peasant farmers. Hot air balloons had been in use in Europe since the 1780s but even one hundred years later, in the 1880s, balloons were a rare sight, inspiring awe, especially in the French countryside.