Paris Street, Rainy Day (Caillebotte, 1877)
This painting, by Gustave Caillebotte, features a fair amount of realism while retaining stylistic qualities of Impressionism. Though not glaringly obvious, there are areas of the painting that have noticeable brush strokes: the shadow of the lamp post, the facade of the orange edifice on the far right, the shading on the cobblestone tiles. This not only keeps with the style of Impressionism, but helps to create the illusion of wet pavement/cobblestone. Since this painting is intended to depict a rainy day, the painter chose to use muted tones, painting within similar color families throughout the whole canvas. Pale neutrals and blues dominate the scene, with occasional pops of orange and green. The colors smartly portray a rainy day, mimicking the way the overcast sky alters the way light is perceived. Due to the subtle peachiness of the sky, it almost looks as though Caillebotte was attempting to show that there was sunlight behind the clouds. In terms of composition, the painting is rather simply structured and easy to follow. However, the image is bisected by the green lamp post and its shadow, which gives the illusion that the work is a diptych, which, in a way, removes the foreground subjects from those of the middle and background. By choosing to “divide” the image, the artist is seemingly highlighting the commonality of the foreground subjects, which is not unlike other work done by Caillebotte, who created common urban and household scenes with hints of realism (see also: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/af/G._Caillebotte_-_Jeune_homme_à_la_fenêtre.jpg). Overall, this work captures the essence of a rainy day on Paris Street because it accurately depicts the way light appears through clouds as well as features very commonplace subject matter.
