Gustave Caillebotte
the Yerres, Rain
circa 1875
That particularly poignant tap of water hitting water resounds strongly from this piece. Drawn from the river’s reflection, the tree trunks seem to form the shapes of hidden musical notes, each shivering in tune with the individual water droplets as they gently riddle the water bed. Sectioned into three slightly diagonal registers (rather like those of a musical sheet), the composition of this picture, partially inspired from the likes of japonisme, invites the eye just as much as the ear into experiencing a mélange of visual and audible textures, bearing one’s senses in the direction of Impressionistic ideals and of how truly to commune with nature. Each of the four natural elements can be seen and thus felt, with Air determining the force and drift of the rain; with Fire concentrated in the dappled, pungent rays of sun and indeed in the suggestion of photosynthesis procuring the lush, healthy greenery; with Water consuming the ‘belly’ of the scene; and with Earth forming a dual base - that of the literal ground, here bordered with a stretch of hewn timber, and that from which the remaining two registers rhythmically rise on a two-dimension plane, beautifully but ironically counterbalancing the fall of rain with a unified ascension of musical strokes.
