Week 5 Blog Post

Caillebotte is an impressionist artist from the late 1800’s. Caillebotte was a man who went through many tragic things in his life. These emotions are easily expressed through his work. He was able to grasp separation and isolation in his pieces that portrayed a concept of modernity in his work. Through the pieces I examined I would think Caillebotte’s paintings were more of a critique of modern life. I believe Caillebotte’s view on the world was quite critical because of what he had been through and what his perspective was on the world. He let his paintings express the problems society faces and the emotions we are too scared to show. He shows images of labor, isolation, and expressionless faces.

             For this weeks post I had to choose Gustave Caillebotte’s Paris Street, Rainy Day, because while I write I’m listening to the storm going on outside my window. This brought a strong connection to this piece for me.  I tried stepping away from his better-known works, but I was continuously drawn back to this piece.

This piece displays Caillebotte’s way of isolating his figures. My focus did not go to the couple walking towards us initially. My attention went to the building in the background and the street that leads to it. I don’t believe the figures were his focal point in this image. They are casted to the side as if to be minor details in his work. The streets are bare although they have people walking around. There are no large groups of people, just pairs and lone walkers. We see these figures walking around the streets of Paris with umbrellas shielding them from the rain, although it’s the water building up in the cobblestone of the streets that portrays the weather. It seems like a dreary day, but even then the figures are dressed very nicely and going on with their day as if it were perfect weather to do so. I look at this painting and see these figures as putting on a mask. The weather shows the emotion of these figures, but they still put on a front of being ‘put together’. I guess this is how I see Caillebotte’s pieces being critical of the modern society. The people are fake, as if they are putting up a front for the society they live in.