Paris Street; Rainy Day

Caillebotte's largest and most ambitious painting — over two metres by nearly three — showing an intersection a short walk from his own front door. He rarely painted anywhere he did not live.

The subject is Impressionist and the handling is not: edges stay hard, the cobblestones are drawn in strict perspective, and the figures at the right are cropped through as though by a camera. The Art Institute bought it in 1964, well before Caillebotte was widely rated.