NORBERT GOENEUTTE (Paris, 1854 - Auvers-sur-Oise,... Lot 38

NORBERT GOENEUTTE (Paris, 1854 - Auvers-sur-Oise, 1894) LE BOULEVARD DE CLICHY SOUS LA NEIGE Oil on canvas 45,8 x 56 cm Bibliography - Gilbert de Knyff, Norbert Goeneutte - sa vie et son OEuvre ou l'art libre au XIXe siècle, Éditions Mayer, Paris, 1978 A youthful work by the artist, only 23 years old, this urban landscape animated by characters turns out to be the modello of the splendid 1876 painting kept in the Tate Modern in London and entitled Le Boulevard de Clichy sous la Neige (Fig. 1). The painter captures with velocity the elegant silhouettes of Parisian strollers. The repentirs illustrate the artist's creative process in the quest for his final composition, which was probably done in the studio, while the modello was done in the open air. To quote Gilbert de Knyff: "When winter came [...] the young Norbert took advantage of the opportunity to move his easel outdoors on the Boulevard de Clichy. He liked the icy or rain-slicked surfaces, and the freshly fallen snow attracted him to them all the more because at that time no one ventured onto the central reservation of this wide artery, and the walkers stood out spectacularly against the untainted whiteness of such a surface, where no one else would think of venturing. Thus life, its contrasts and pulsations, can be captured in its purest form." (op. cit., pp. 47-48).