Paris Street; Rainy Day1877
Considered Caillebotte’s masterpiece, this view of a busy intersection captures both an everyday moment and all that was new in a rapidly changing Paris. The clothes are the latest fashion. More about this work
About this work
Considered Caillebotte’s masterpiece, this view of a busy intersection captures both an everyday moment and all that was new in a rapidly changing Paris. The clothes are the latest fashion. The retractable umbrella was just invented. And a decades-long renovation had transformed the medieval streets of Paris into grand boulevards, like the ones seen here. It's a painting you want to walk into.
Text from the Art Institute of Chicago.
What you’re looking at
Life-size painting of an urban scene in Paris. A man in a top hat holding an umbrella and a woman in a long fashionable dark dress walk arm in arm toward the viewer as other city dwellers with umbrellas walk in various directions across cobblestone roads and sidewalks.
Description from the Art Institute of Chicago.
How it was made
- Oil paint
- Pigment ground in a drying oil, usually linseed. It dries slowly, so painters could blend on the canvas, build up thin translucent glazes, and rework a picture over weeks. Canvas replaced wooden panels in the 1500s because it is lighter and can be rolled.
Gustave Caillebotte
French, 1848–1894
Impressionism
Painters in 1870s Paris who worked quickly, often outdoors, to catch light as it changed.
Rights and the museum’s record
Public domain. The Art Institute of Chicago has dedicated this image to the public domain under CC0, so anyone may copy, adapt and use it, for any purpose, without asking. Our prints and files are reproductions made from the museum’s image; the museum doesn’t endorse them.
- Object number
- 1964.336
- Credit
- Courtesy of the Art Institute of Chicago
- Type
- Painting
- Department
- Painting and Sculpture of Europe
- Licence
- CC0 1.0 Universal
- Museum record
- See it on the museum’s site
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