An excerpt from Gustave Caillebotte by Rodolphe Rapetti:
Caillebotte's participation in the second impressionist exhibition proved decisive. Exhibiting for the first time with painters whose cause he had made his own over the preceding two years, the artist presented an ensemble reflective of his ambitions, one that strikes us today as having been composed entirely of major works. Among these, Young Man at His Window combines a depiction of the city, not unlike similar views painted by other impressionists, with the figure of a spectator, a dark silhouette perhaps inspired by interior scenes on which Caillebotte was also working at the time. The focus on brilliant exterior light and its penetration into an apartment, the reflection in the window, the figure shown contre-jour, and the plunging view onto the street indicate an agenda stressing novelty as well as a search for realism.

Five years later the artist adopted the same basic compositional scheme in another painting of similar format, Man on a Balcony, treating it quite differently. Comparison of the two versions of this theme proves instructive. In the later painting Caillebotte clearly set out to avoid the overly anecdotal: the room is all but excluded by the framing, the view onto the street is obscured by foliage, and the pose of the elegant male figure, either ready to go out or on a brief visit, suggests that his gaze onto the boulevard can only be distracted. By contrast, Young Man at His Window implies a much more precise narrative and is pitched on a very different expressive register. Its intimacy differs in character from that of the later image, and its psychological ambiance is typical of the works in which the artist depicted members of his family in interiors. The man's posture (he is the painter's younger brother Rene'), hands in his pockets, apparently staring at a female silhouette in the street, the armchair facing the window, the deserted city, the motionless carriage-all speak of idleness, of time wasted.