Rainy Day, Chicago, With Caillebotte
A masterpiece celebrating the rise of one great modern city found its home in another.
It felt like passing by a friend at a party, pausing only long enough to say you’d circle back soon.
I’d taken a taken a cheap flight from Washington, D.C., to see the “Remedios Varo: Science Fictions” show at the Art Institute of Chicago. The show included many paintings still held in private collections. So it was a rare chance to examine up close the detailed surrealist worlds created by Varo (1908–1963), a Spanish exile who spent most of the last two decades of her life in Mexico. I’ll post an essay about that show if I can get permission to include images of the paintings.
But on my way through the museum to the Varo show, I had to first take a quick look at a very different kind of painting.
It seemed rude to pass “Paris Street; Rainy Day” without acknowledging it.
"Be back later," I whispered as I left after stopping for a minute to visit with this painting.
That’s not quite as ridiculous as it seems.
Gustave Caillebotte (1848–1894) draws viewers into “Paris Street; Rainy Day,” letting us feel a part of his world and not just observers of it. To show off his hometown, Caillebotte…
