Norbert Goeneutte, 'The Boulevard de Clichy under Snow', 1875-6

Norbert Goeneutte’s painting of a snowy Parisian street skilfully evokes a cold winter’s day. Snow lies across the bottom half of the picture, and we are seeing it before the people and carriages have melted it. Men and women go about their business. The men in particular look rather nonchalant with their hands in their pockets, no doubt from the cold. In between the trees a woman is attempting to brush away the snow. She is watched by a small white dog that is almost invisible. The dark colours of the Parisians’ clothes and carriages contrast with the startling brightness of the white snow.

The Boulevard de Clichy is in the 18th arrondissement in Montmartre. The painting was produced in 1875, when Goeneutte was living close by. He would have known this road well. The many cafés and cabarets, and the cheap rents, attracted artists to the area. It had a working-class radical tradition. In 1871 it saw the beginning of the revolutionary Paris Commune. There is no evidence of the bohemian or revolutionary characteristics of the area in Goeneutte’s painting. Perhaps this was because he intended it to be exhibited at the Paris Salon, where such sentiments were not approved of. Indeed, in 1876 it was shown at the Salon.

The Boulevard was a favourite subject for the artist. It would appear in several oils as well as an etching in 1876 based on his studies for this work, which focuses on the carriage on the left and the lady in the centre.

Goeneutte was a patron of the bars and cabarets in the area. He was friendly with many of the artists who would form the Impressionist group. Goeneutte patronised the Café de la Nouvelle-Athènes, where he met journalists and writers as well as Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Claude Monet and Edgar Degas. He also met Edouard Manet at the Père Lathuille on the Avenue de Clichy, which would be painted by Manet in 1879. He was close to Renoir, who included him in his Bal du Moulin de la Galette and La Balançoire (both Musée d’Orsay, Paris).

The off-centre composition, perhaps influenced by Japanese prints, with figures on the right and the wide expanse of white snow, owes much to the influence of Manet and Degas. The fleeting effects of the weather and the monochromatic snow were themes of many Impressionist works. However, despite his friendships with the Impressionists, Goeneutte did not exhibit with them. Although he shared their interest in contemporary Parisian street scenes, his approach was never as adventurous as that of his friends.