Paris Street; Rainy Day (also known as Paris: A Rainy Day) is an 1877 oil painting by the French artist Gustave Caillebotte. The piece depicts an intersection near the Gare Saint-Lazare, a railroad station in north Paris. One of Caillebotte's best known works, it debuted at the Third Impressionist Exhibition of 1877 and is currently on display at the Art Institute of Chicago. Art Institute curator Gloria Groom described the piece as "the great pi...
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Paris Street; Rainy Day (also known as Paris: A Rainy Day) is an 1877 oil painting by the French artist Gustave Caillebotte. The piece depicts an intersection near the Gare Saint-Lazare, a railroad station in north Paris. One of Caillebotte's best known works, it debuted at the Third Impressionist Exhibition of 1877 and is currently on display at the Art Institute of Chicago. Art Institute curator Gloria Groom described the piece as "the great picture of urban life in the late 19th century."
Caillebotte's interest in photography is evident in the painting. The figures in the foreground appear slightly "out of focus", those in the mid-distance (the carriage and the pedestrians in the middle of the intersection) have sharp edges, and then the background becomes progressively indistinct.
An essay-length interpretation of this painting from Brian A. Oard's book Beauty and Terror can be read at
http://sites.google.com/site/beautyandterror/Home/bourgeoisie-and-proletariat
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