Rue de Paris, temps de pluie

Caillebotte’s best-known and largest work captures a wet, grey moment on the Carrefour de Moscou, in the upscale quartier in which the Caillebotte family lived and owned property. Caillebotte transcribes the city’s complex spatial and social geometries with a precision that calls to mind photography [1]. He likely used a camera lucida to set down the space [2], but deliberately distorted [3] the results to exaggerate both the scale of the foreground and the plunging depth of the background, calling our attention to the Haussmannised apartment blocks and the gas lamppost. Caillebotte populates the scene with modern Parisians, predominantly in fashionable, bourgeois dress, walking alone or in couples; they share a public space, but each are lost in their own private world.

[1] Karin Sagner, Max Hollein, et Ulrich Pohlmann (éd.), Gustave Caillebotte : an impressionist and photography (catalogue d’exposition : Kunsthalle Frankfurt 2012/2013), Munich, Hirmer, 2012; Serge Lemoine (éd.), Dans l’intimité des frères Caillebotte: Peintre et Photographe (catalogue d’exposition : Musée Jacquemart-André et Musée national des beaux-arts du Québec 2011/2012), Paris, Flammarion, 2011.
[2] Gloria Groom and Kelly Keegan, « Cat. 2 Paris Street; Rainy Day, 1877: Curatorial Entry », dans Caillebotte Paintings and Drawings at the Art Institute of Chicago, Art Institute of Chicago, 2015.
[3] Kirk Varnedoe with Peter Galassi, « Caillebotte’s Space », dans Gustave Caillebotte, 1987, p. 20-26; Peter Galassi, « Caillebotte’s Method » dans Varnedoe, Caillebotte, 1987, p. 27-40.