1899

Boulevard in Wet Weather, Paris

American, 1865 - 1929

This painting was made on Robert Henri’s honeymoon, which he spent in Paris with his new wife, Linda Craige, in 1899. The loose and fairly rapid application of pigment deftly evokes a sloshy street scene in the evening rain. Everything is drawn with the brush rather than sketched in beforehand, which adds a sense of immediacy to the work. Although the blurred, dazzling light effects recall the work of the French Impressionists, especially the cityscapes of Camille Pissarro, the murky palette, with strong contrasts of dark and light, are typical of Henri’s moody renderings of the urban scene at night.