Boulevard Haussmann in the Snow

By the time Caillebotte set up at his window on the boulevard Haussmann, this avenue was still fairly new. Baron Haussmann had cut these broad, straight boulevards through the crowded old city only a couple of decades earlier, and the address itself carried his name. In December 1878 a heavy snow settled over Paris, and Caillebotte, who lived at number 31, painted the street from high above, looking almost straight down. That plunging view was his habit; he liked to lean over the city rather than stand in it. The snow flattens the traffic and the trees into a soft grey, and the grand new avenue goes quiet. Along the bottom edge runs the ornate iron railing of the balcony he was standing on.