The Impressionist and patron of other artists Gustave Caillebotte (1848 – 1894) painted the Boulevard Haussmann under many aspects of seasonal and daily change.
Gustave Caillebotte: Urban Impressionist (1995) – Anne Distel
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Book Description
Caillebotte’s vivid representations of Parisian life bridged the gap between Realism and Impressionism during the 1870s and early 1880s. His Paris Street: Rainy Day and Floorscrapers–each the subject of a fascinating, extensively illustrated analysis in this book–have become icons of the Impressionists’ devotion to scenes of modern urban life.
Prepared by an international team of scholars to accompany the major 1994-95 retrospective organized by the Réunion des Musées Nationaux/Musée d’Orsay, Paris, and The Art Institute of Chicago, Gustave Caillebotte: Urban Impressionist reproduces 89 of his paintings and 28 of his drawings and studies, many of them from little-known private collections. Thoughtful essays examine both his work and his crucial role as an early patron and promoter of Impressionism. A chronology, list of exhibitions, and selected bibliography provide additional invaluable information.
See also: French art – realism – impressionism – Arcades Project
I haven’t done much reading about Caillebotte, but have seen reproductions of this picture before. He was sure influenced by early photography, I’m thinking. He conveyed the sensation of a rainy day in downtown Paris. It must have been a great novelty in his time, this painting.
Adrian Chan recently did a piece on Rain in film
The piece is lovely, I quote:
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Rain is melancholic but not sad, it is usually cold, wet, and uncomfortable, but in film it has no temperature and becomes moving image, an element as pure as any made for film. Rivers flow, but we cannot film flowing rivers and be in them as we are in a scene shot in the rain.
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Definitely one of my favorite and lesser known impressionists. The cover of the book is from the painting “Paris Street, a Rainy Day”.
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