Caillebottes Rainy Day

Gustave Caillebottes work, Paris Street; Rainy Day, is an oil on canvas painting measuring seven feet, ten inches by six feet, one inches.
As mentioned previously, the art work is painted with oil on a large canvas. From a distance the brushstrokes are hardly visible in the painting. There appears to be little, if any, impasto evident. Upon closer inspection, the texture of the brushstrokes can be described as grainy and the lines dividing objects are not as crisp. The painting is fairly large. Being six feet tall, the figures in the foreground are not life-size but are still around four feet tall. The size of the painting could affect how the viewer sees the wide boulevard as it appears as though the viewer is standing in the street among
the figures. There is little negative space in Paris Street; Rainy Day. Beyond the sky above the buildings, much of the space is occupied by something; whether it be cobblestone, building or figure.
The setting painted is outside as it shows the exterior of buildings as well as a cobblestone street. The buildings and structures in Caillebotte’s painting are very linear and touch on several different perspective points along the horizon line. The lines of the windows dotting each building follow along the path of the perspective line, drawing the eye backwards further down the Paris street.
Contrarily, all the figures are fairly organic in nature. The saturation of the image is low and the painting’s palette is fairly limited. Though there are a few places in which a muted red has been placed, much of the painting is made up of grayish, yellow, or brown tones. The streets shown in the art work are wide and spacious. This could be showing the result of Haussminization that had occurred in Paris around the time. There are what appear to be two horse drawn carriages in the painting towards the left. That and the fact that there are no cars visible in the image shows that it takes place before the advent of motorized vehicles.
The figures in Paris Street; Rainy Day are all standing and appear to all be in motion.
Additionally, several of them carry gray umbrellas above their heads. The two most prominent figures appear in the right end of the painting, framed between a light post and a red wall. They are a man and a woman. The man carries an umbrella and is wearing a top hat. The woman beside him also walks beneath the shelter of the umbrella and holds onto the man’s left arm. The man in addition to being shown in a top hat, is also wearing a muted brown pair of trousers, a button-down white undershirt and bowtie, a waistcoat as well as an un-buttoned dark gray overcoat. The other men in the painted are dressed similarly, with the addition of dress shoes that are not shown on the man mentioned previously. The woman holding onto the man’s arm wears a long dress. The texture of the trim of her dress painted by Caillebotte seems to represent fur of some kind. The woman’s hair is pulled up in a bundle on the top of her head. In addition, she wears a thin veil over her face. In her earlobe is an earring of a bright stone—possibly a diamond. Her hands, unlike the mans, are covered by black gloves. There is a juxtaposition between the number of figures and their overlap. There is little overlap of the figures and they are all spaced out away from one another throughout the scene. Most figures are alone, while a few are in pairs of two. None of the figures in the painting look directly forward, at the viewer. The woman in the front looks towards the man beside her, but he looks at something unseen in the distance. Many of the other figures look down towards the street or their faces are not visible at all. The third figure closest to the front is turned away from the viewer and is cut off by the end of the
painting.
The figures in the painting are shifted to the right, Caillebotte shifted the focal point instead to the street itself. Furthermore, the proportion of the figures as the largest of them are on the right. The figures shrink as they recede in to the background. As the painting recedes into the background the color fades, showing atmospheric perspective.
The fact that the figures do not look directly at one another, coupled with the idea that they also do not make eye-contact with the viewer seems to convey a sense of isolation. There are at least a dozen people strolling along the street, but Caillebotte purposefully limits any overlap that they may have. They are each absorbed into their own lives. Additionally, Caillebotte’s use of color also supports the idea of apathy and isolationism among the figures. Firstly, the figures are all clothing in dark colors with hints of contrasting white. The umbrella’s that some of the figures hold have a gray palette to them. Not one figure stands out with an outfit of a bright or contrasting color.