Rethinking Paris Street, Rainy Day: Accordion Space

Abstract

This article talks about the artwork of Gustave Caillebottes Paris Street, Rainy Day. If you know Gustave Caillebottes Paris Street, Rainy Day, you'll recall one factor contributing to its stop-you-in-your-tracks effect is size. Seven feet tall and nine feet wide, the canvas appears monumental--as an oil painting--and perfectly life-size as an urban vista. The scale embraces any viewer, ushering them into its spell. The present essay argues that Paris Street, Rainy Day, completed in 1877, coincides with a decisive tipping point in cultural history.