Paris Street; Rainy Day

A broad city intersection stretches under a gray sky, its stone surface slick with rain. Pedestrians cross in different directions, many sheltering beneath open umbrellas, while rows of classical buildings line the wide avenue in soft, muted tones. Gustave Caillebotte painted this scene in 1877 in oil on canvas, and it now belongs to the Art Institute of Chicago, having come from the Charles H. and Mary F. S. Worcester Collection. Caillebotte, born in 1848 and died in 1894, was a French painter associated with Impressionism. One detail worth noticing is how the wet cobblestones reflect the pale light, giving the pavement a slightly shimmering surface that contrasts with the solid, upright figures moving through the damp air beneath their umbrellas, reinforcing the sense of a cool, overcast day in the city.