Let the Rains Fall - Caillebotte, VanGogh, Turner, Yee, Magritte, Richter, Malobabic

In keeping with our Pacific NW menopausal weather, yesterday it rained hard all day. Yet today, it is sunny and relatively warm. However, the general trend this time of year is cold, gloomy and rainy. It was with that picture in mind I thought it would be fun to look at how artists have featured rain in their paintings.

First and most famous for his painting of a rainy day is Gustave Caillebotte (1848-1894) His "Paris Street, Rainy Day," is taught in Art History classes for the classic that it is. (Dear Reader: Take heart as we stray away from such limitations.)

 

Another well-known artist of the same period was Van Gogh(1853-1890) This particular painting has the fascinating title of "Rain."

In the same 19th Century, we have J.M.W. Turner's (1775-1851) depiction of a train hurtling across a bridge in a storm. The title is, "Rain, Steam and Speed - The Great Western Railway."

 

Stepping into the 20th Century, we move to Asian Chiang Yee, (1903-1977) who was a painter, poet and calligrapher. This is one of his works from "The Silent Traveller in London."

We now leap to the surreal through the works of Rene Magritte (1898-1967). It's a stretch for the rain subject, but it is in keeping with the surreal or dream state with his painting "Golgonda." (It's a city in India and I welcome more information on the painting from Magritte fans of this rain of men in bowlers.)

Now, we're in present-day artists representations of rain. The first is renown visual artist, Gerhard Richter (1932-), who at age 89 is considered one of the important German contemporary artists. This is his  "Rain (1)."

 Lastly, we return to a rainy day scene from a contemporary artist, Dusan Malobabic (1991?-), an Aussie, who often uses a palette to create this wonderful rainy day scenes in a Impressionistic manner.

 

The question is: Of those shown here, which reminds you most of the feelings of rain?