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Gustave Caillebotte's Paris Street; Rainy Day Essay

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Gustave Caillebotte's Paris Street; Rainy Day

The first thing that strikes me is the size of the work. About seven feet tall and nine feet wide, this painting dominates its gallery and overwhelms the viewer. The couple in the foreground of the painting is nearly life size, and with the man poised to take another step it seems he might climb right over the frame and walk right into the gallery. The bold perspective thrusts the scene outward, and with details such as the sharply receding roofline of the main building and the acute tilt of the street, geometric and visual effects are created which push and pull the viewer and instill the painting with action.
This work is more complex and detailed then one might first imagine, …show more content…

He tilts his umbrella to the right so as to avoid collision with the couple who neither pay him attention nor show any signs of tilting their umbrella in deference. A green (a color which stands out) gas lamp separates these three from the rest of the painting, and also divides the canvas in half. A little further back a lone man is crossing the street, looking down in a manner which suggests inward thinking but also illustrates the reality of the wet and mucky road on which one must watch their step. The rest of the figures receive less influence, but a few of them are certainly worth noting. Directly to the left of the protagonist's head two women walk away from the viewer. Their symmetry is visually enticing. Also, above the wagon wheel on the left side of the painting a man is crossing the street. He piqued my attention because of the odd position of his body and feet - it looks as if he is almost doing a jig. Lastly, one might note how the front couple's umbrella pole occludes a woman's head in the background; she in turn holds an umbrella that obscures the head of a workman with ladder behind her; a curious compositional detail to say the least.

The surface of the painting is characterized mostly by relatively broad painterly brushstrokes which in that singularly impressionistic manner allow the "stuff" of paint to really show. Even though the picture appears much more finished and

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