Snowscene at Porte de Versailles

Albert Marquet was a French painter closely associated with the Fauve movement, though his work is generally more restrained and tonal than the chromatic explosions of Matisse or Derain. This 1904 snow scene at the Porte de Versailles in Paris captures the city in winter quiet, a motif that allowed Marquet to explore the tonal harmonies of snow-diffused light. Paris snow scenes were a tradition reaching back through Monet and Pissarro; Marquet's version is characteristically economical, distilling the subject to essential tonal relationships. The National Museum of Western Art in Tokyo holds this work.

The snow-covered street and rooftops create a composition of cool greys, whites, and blue shadows. Marquet's handling is characteristically spare — a few well-placed dark accents of figures and trees against the pale expanse of snow. Paint is applied thinly and with confident economy; no stroke is wasted.