Paris Street; Rainy Day

Caillebotte made a number of preliminary sketches in graphite and oil. The composition shows 24 mostly bourgeois pedestrians, dominated by a foreground couple with an umbrella, who are staring outside of the viewer's field of vision. The painting takes the form of a photorealistic cityscape, departing from the typical style of Impressionist art, representative of a Paris that appears austere and hostile to human interaction. Caillebotte employed several visual techniques to create the illusion of three-dimensional space, such as linear two-point perspective and colour effects.

Paris Street was first shown in April 1877 at the Third Impressionist Exhibition in Paris, where it was widely praised for its photorealism and precision. It was not displayed publicly again until a posthumous retrospective exhibition in 1894. Caillebotte bequeathed the work to his youngest brother Martial, and it remained in obscurity, in the family's possession, before being sold to art collectors in the mid-20th century. The Art Institute of Chicago's acquisition in 1964 accelerated a revival of Caillebotte's art, increasing his reputation as an artist in the public eye.