Paris Street in Rainy Weather

This huge (212cm x 276cm) painting was the main attraction of the Third Impressionist Exhibition of 1877, and was very well received by critics. In the foreground we see a fashionably dressed young couple strolling the new boulevards of the capital of France. Paris was changing at the time, as Baron Georges-Eugène Haussmann renovated, reconstructed, and most especially widened the arterial streets of the city. As Haussmann did, Caillebotte has created a logical construction in his work. The lantern is dividing the space between two places. One portion shows us the boulevard, where our sight is lost in a depth of space; the other one shows us this couple, and the sharp focus in which they're painted (Caillebotte was fascinated by photographic effects) give us the curious feeling that they may just walk out of the picture in a moment. We can see that Cailebotte has combined the Impressionists' "catching of the moment" with logical construction.