Paris in the Snow

Edelfelt painted this canvas from the window of his suburban studio in 1887. The view, though it has a flavour of the fortuitous, is deliberately, tautly structured, and the subject, though scarcely oriental, is yet done ‘à la japonaise.’ The lane crosses the image and the real space toward the horizon, its course rhythmically underpinned by trees and, further off, carriages and a tram. In the foreground, a snow-covered rooftop is cropped by the right edge. The shadows of this and the neighbouring building (from which Edelfelt is presumably viewing the scene) join the shadows of the trees to establish a contrapunctal diagonal dynamic. The smoke from the factory chimneys, blown from left to right across the horizon, adds to the effect.