POST 3

Write a formal analysis on one Impressionist painting.* What is your reaction to this work of art, based on the formal elements that are presented? You should consider some formal elements like color, line, composition, style, scale, etc. Please remember that the subject matter (i.e. what is “happening” in the narrative scene) does not constitute a formal element.

Be sure to just pick one or two overall reactions as your thesis statement. Please select your work of art from Chapter 30 of our Stokstad textbook. When appropriate, be sure to use some of the art historical terms that were introduced in the textbook and during lecture. Please be aware that there isn’t a “right” or “ wrong” reaction to a work of art. Instead, you will be graded on how well you support your reaction by analyzing the formal elements of the piece.

Gustave Caillebotte "Paris Street, Rainy Day" 1877, Oil on Canvas

            Gustave Caillebotte was a post-impressionistic painter. The street is tilted at a drastic angle, the hand of the artist is noticable (but not as much as other artists of the impressionism movement), and the subject matter is outside with a study of light and colors. This painting captures the wonderful street life in "modern day"Paris of the time. Caillebotte like other artists focused on capturing the outside subject matters and focused on light and how the different colors would look like under the different lighting depending on the time of day and season, and because of this it wasn't uncommon for artists to put the type of light they were working with in the name of their painting. In this case Caillebotte was painting during a rainy day.

             The street being tilted at a drastic angle is from the Japanese wood block prints, which came from the open trade agreement, and the exchange of art between culture. After the open trade agreement, european artists began to take pieces of these new paintings and incorporate them into their works as well. In this painting the street tilts up at a semi-unrealistic, as if this were to be on a hill or something. In fact this location is flat, the painting is taken at rue de Turin near its intersection with the rue de Moscou, which is north of the Saint-Lazare train station.

      Another aspect of this painting is Caillebotte is his infatuation with Haussmann who was modernizing the Paris street's, we can see evidence of the transformation in Paris, by looking at the man facing us in the foreground's umbrella, if you look just past the umbrella on the left side you can make out a scaffolding rig, which would most likely be Hausmann working. 

      Aside from the people being dressed in modern day 19th century clothing, we notice that this is modern day 19th centruy Paris because of the widened streets and the remodeled buildings. Yet there's still one more important key fact about this painting that shows the modernization of this painting, it's the fact that it resembles a photograph. On the right foreground you can see the back of a man but is chopped in half as if this were a flash shot from a camera. The life of the paint grows so much from cutting the man on that side of the painting, it's as if the viewer is the one who is looking at this image with their own eyes, instead of just looking at a painting. 

        The Impressionistic painters left their "hand" in the details of the painting, some examples would be impasto strokes, or glazes or heavy strokes. Caillebotte didn't typically use these "traditional" impressionistic painting styles, but he did like to use bold brush strokes to help create texture, such as the very believable paved street.

         The movement of his brush strokes and use of colors, make me feel as if I were there with him as he looked at the street and saw this entire scene happening, the hustling and bustling of the people, huddling under their umbrella's to avoid the slight rain so they dont get their wonderful clothes wet. The part that I love the most though is his slight attention to details, not just in the subject matter, but the wonderful little details such as the scaffolding in the background, that upon first glance isn't seen but when appreciating and looking at the overall picture is. These are the little things that really bring the story of the picture to life and more realistic to me.