4. The Art of Rain
a. In silence, focus on the picture above for half a minute.
b. Now talk with a partner about your experience of this painting.
c. Use some or all of the questions below to deepen your discussion.
- (1) What are the figures (= people) in the painting doing?
- (2) What is the mood or atmosphere that Caillebotte creates?
- (3) What, in your view, is the main subject or focal point of the painting?
- (4) What do you notice about the composition? (Composition = how the artist divides the page or canvas into different areas of different sizes).
- (5) Why do you think Caillebotte put a lamppost in the exact centre of the painting?
- (6) Caillebotte was interested in photography, which was a relatively new invention back in 1877. How does this painting show the influence of photography?
- (7) If Caillebotte had painted this scene on a sunny day, how different would it look? Would the resulting artwork be more or less interesting than this one?
- (8) Why do you think he chose to paint a rainy day?
- (9) If you had the chance to ask the painter one question, what would you ask?
- (10) How does this painting compare in atmosphere to the video that you watched in the first part of this lesson?
d. Watch this video by artist Larry Withers, describing Paris Street; Rainy Day.
What does Larry say about:
- Paris
- the lamppost
- the mood of the painting?
e. Do Worksheet 4.
This sheet contains three ideas for speaking and/or writing tasks relating to how rain is used in the arts.
Englishin3d 
Thank you so much for all the hard work you put into these lessons. I have used a few of your lessons with great success in one-to-one lessons. I love the way you move from one spect to another while linking all with one theme. Kudos!
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I’m delighted to hear it, Margie. Thank you so much for the lovely feedback!
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