Winter in Paris, or Paris in the Snow

Art Historical Context

Step into the enchanting streets 1879 Paris with-Hilaire Buhot's *Winter in Paris or Paris in the Snow a masterful print capturing the city's winter magic. Snow blankets bustling boulevards lined with horse-drawn, lively dogs, and faint glow of gas lamps evoking the everyday poetry urban life during the Belle Époque. Buhot a innovative French printmaker freezes this fleeting moment, the chill of winter with warmth of human activity. This work shines a technical tour de force employing an extraordinary mix of etching, soft-ground, drypoint, aquint, sulphur tint, roulette—the fifth and final of five. These layered intaglio methods createvety textures for snowdrifts, crisp for horses and figures, luminous atmospheres that mimic the diffused light. Buhot's pushed printmaking boundaries, rivaling's richness on paper. oused in the Metropolitan Museum Art's Drawings and Prints (gift of David Keppel, 1917), this 9 5/16 x 3/4-inch plate offers a window into late-19th-century Paris, where Haussmann's modern met seasonal whimsy, delighting visitors with its intricate detail and nostalgic charm.

About the Artist

Félix-Hilaire Buhot · 1847–1898

Félix-Hilaire Buhot was born on July 9, 1847, in Valognes, a small town in Normandy, France, into a modest family—his father a wine merchant and his mother a seller of women's clothes. Orphaned by age seven after losing both parents and his maternal grandmother, he was raised by relatives, including a godfather, and received an early introduction to drawing from his adopted mother's nephew. In 186...