Paul Cornoyer, The Plaza After Rain, 1910, Oil on canvas.
The Saint Louis Art Museum, St Louis, MO.

"Impressionism followed the lead of the Barbizon School and emphasized open-air compositions over studio work. If the painter had to work quickly and with spontaneity in order to capture the ever-changing light of a landscape scene, a street scene demanded even greater speed. This speed of production created an even sketchier and more abbreviated rendering of the subject. The resulting work was often a visual poem, such as seen in Cornoyer's The Plaza After Rain. Not only does this painting offer an impressionistic perspective of a misty spring day, it also captures the mood. The viewer is transported to time, location, and emotion.

The Plaza After Rain not only fulfills the typically impressionistic goal of conveying the effects of light and atmosphere of the scene, it also extends a sympathetic and human view of city dwellers as they negotiate the city's canyons. Whereas the viewer initially sees a painting with muted palette and soft hues, a closer inspection reveals shocks of vibrant color: the bright green of the young leaves that frame the top of the painting, the rosy light reflected off the buildings in the background, and the intense red of the child's scarf. Through the use of color, the eye is slowly drawn from the sky to the figures below. The painting gradually reveals an authentic human moment. We share in this moment; we feel the warm spring rain, we smell the fresh air, we are there. In another painter's hand, or through a less poetic eye, this scene might seem somber, even drab. Cornoyer offers the inherent joy and hopefulness of an early spring day in the city. Ultimately, Cornoyer gives the viewer the gift of visual poetry and the quiet beauty of a misty day."

-Brian P. Pace, The Journal of the American Medical Association.