Paris Street; Rainy Day

This painting, "Paris Street; Rainy Day," is attributed to Kawabata Gyokushō, an artist primarily known for his traditional Japanese paintings. Given the artist's birth year of 1842, he would have been 35 years old in 1877, making the attribution plausible. However, the subject matter and medium (oil on canvas) are quite a departure from the woodblock prints and silk paintings that dominate his known oeuvre in collections like the Met Museum and the Art Institute of Chicago, which largely feature subjects like cherry blossoms, birds, and landscapes in a traditional Japanese style. This painting's style, with its focus on a bustling European city scene and the use of oil, suggests an exploration of Western artistic conventions, perhaps during a period of travel or study. It presents an intriguing contrast to his more characteristic works, offering a glimpse into a potentially lesser-known facet of his artistic practice or a moment of experimentation with different genres and techniques.