#73 Paris Street; Rainy Day — Coaster

The Paris in this painting was about ten years old. Haussmann had driven those boulevards through a medieval city, and Caillebotte painted the result while the stone was still clean — the wide grey street, the identical buildings, the strangers passing without acknowledging one another. He drew the perspective with a ruler and put the lamppost dead centre, splitting the canvas in two. It is a picture of a city that has just been made, and of what that felt like. Art Institute of Chicago.