Paris Street: Rainy Day (1877)
Gustave Caillebotte (1848-1894)
The Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois
AR seems to be enjoying the view of the intersection near the Gare Saint-Lazare, but his companion only has eyes for him.
Caillebotte was not a typical artist. For one thing, he wasn't starving. He had money and used it.
Secondly, he painted the urban life of the common Parisian -- which the critics considered boorish.
When he died, he left his entire collection to the French government, and they didn't want it. Yes, they actually refused a fabulous collection of 68 paintings by Caillebotte and his friends Claude Monet, Auguste Renoir, Camilla Pissarro, Paul Cezanne, Edouard Manet and Alfred Sisley.
And they turned it down not once, not twice, but three times!
Eventually, they reluctantly accepted 38 of them. It wasn't until 1928 that the French government finally came to its senses and tried to claim the rest of the works. Caillebotte's family basically told them to go to hell.
I have seen this painting at the Art Institute.
It is huge: a whopping 10x7 feet. The couple in the foreground are life size. It gives the impression that you are walking towards them on that busy Paris street.
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to go directly to that FAMOUS ARt.
to go directly to that FAMOUS ARt.