Sharjah: Aladdin Mahmoud
Scenes full of life, beauty and creativity, those that we find in the works of the French painter Gustave Caillebotte «1848-1890», who is considered one of the most prominent artists of his time. Also, he was born in Paris to a wealthy family that worked in the field of textiles, and his father was a judge. Caillebotte obtained a law degree in 1868 and a license to practice the profession in 1870. In addition, he was an engineer, and he also served in the French army during the Franco-Prussian War.
Caillebotte’s artistic talents were launched early in his life when he began to learn drawing, and after a short time he developed his own style, establishing his own studio in the family home, and he inherited a fortune from his father after his death in 1874 and in the same year he began to establish friendships with a number of artists Among them: Edgar Degas, and he attended the first exhibition of the Impressionists, but he did not participate in it, as his appearance was with the Impressionists in their second exhibition in 1876, so he participated in 8 paintings of his most important works of art. And Gustave Courbet, and his contemporary Degas painted reality as he saw it completely, but his style was greatly influenced by his fellow Impressionists.
The painting “A Parisian Street on a Rainy Day” is one of Caillebotte’s most famous paintings, and it was painted in 1877, with oil colors on canvas, and found a great and resounding echo. In general, it belongs to Caillebotte’s method, who was known for drawing paintings of Parisian civil life, and this matter appeared in many of his works, especially this painting, which deals with the city’s landmarks, because of its hugeness and unusual perspective, and the artist was also famous for dealing with silent nature, and many local scenes, And family scenes, and personalities, and internal things, and critics point out that Caillebotte, although he was a supporter of many impressionist artists, painted this painting with impressionist influences, but it differs in its realism and in its dependence on the line, rather than the touches of the broad brush.
a description
A number of figures appear in the scene of the painting walking around at a time when it seems to be a winter afternoon, and this is evident through the hint of fog and the gradation of light and the heavy clothes that people wear as they walk around the place, carrying their umbrellas that protect them from the rain, although the scene of the painting It is full of characters, but the focus seems to be on two characters in the front of the painting, a man and a woman, and perhaps the remarkable thing about all the characters in the work is that they wear Parisian outfits that look luxurious. The figure of the woman who accompanies the man in the front of the painting appears in a brown dress that covers her entire body, and is decorated with diamond earrings , a hat, a scarf, and a fur-lined coat, and it was considered at that time one of the latest fashions in Paris, and as for the man, he appears with a prominent mustache, and he wears a high black hat, and the same applies to the necktie, with a white shirt, a waistcoat, a long open light coat, a high collar, and a jacket With a tail, and at the moment when both the man and the woman crossed the road, there was a man crossing in the opposite direction to them at the same moment, and he passed by them, and it appears opposite to their walking on the right of the painting, and it seems that both the man and the woman are looking at the other end of the The street is to the left of the picture.
In general, the two main characters in the painting (the man and the lady) seem to belong to the middle class, with the way they look and those luxurious clothes, and the scene of the painting is full of characters and other details, as there are also people belonging to the lower class in the background of the painting, such as the standing maid At the entrance to the building on the left of the painting, the decorator holds a ladder and a perforated umbrella. Critics point out that Caillebotte has exercised some creativity in a play style on perspective and characters, as a man appears jumping off a wheel, in addition to the characters’ feet visible under the umbrella frame, and other than that. This is a seemingly incomplete detail.
reading
Some critics point out the presence of the architectural vision in the painting, especially since Caillebotte is considered one of those who studied architecture, so the bodies appear in the foreground of the work in an unfocused manner, while those in the middle such as passers-by crossing the road are painted with sharp edges, while the clarity of the background features gradually decreases Also, the sharp economy appears clearly in some bodies, especially the man who appears on the far right of the painting, which indicates that the painter was influenced by the art of photography, so he made the middle of the picture prominent, while the degree of clarity varies in the secondary characters scattered throughout the painting.
Other critics point out that the work does not carry an intimate social ritual, as the characters in the painting are dissonant and isolated from each other, as there is no type or amount of communication, and their faces show gloomy features, and they walk in haste, preoccupied with their thoughts and concerns instead of the pleasure of wandering, as each one of them He has his own preoccupations and concerns, and all of them appear in the scene of the painting while they are protected by their umbrellas, or as the critic Rose Marie Hagen said: “It seems that those umbrellas not only protect them from rain, but also from passers-by.” As if each of them was afraid to meet the other or look at His face, and those are among the features of civic life that the artist ably reflected in his work. He worked on portraying the moods of people in the street, just as his contemporaries of the great Impressionist artists such as Monet, Renoir, Deja, and others used to do, as passers-by come to the city from different parts, and they pass through it. As if they were strangers to the place, and to each other.
literature
The painting found a great echo in the cultural and artistic community, and was praised by the famous writer and novelist Emile Zola in his article entitled “Parisian Memoirs: Exhibition of Impressionist Painters” in 1877. The painting also played a prominent role in an international film entitled “Ferris Bueller’s Vacation” in 1986. This masterpiece is currently housed at the Art Institute of Chicago.
