Effect of Snow on Petit-Montrouge

The oil on canvas painting shows a winter view of Petit-Montrouge, an area in the 14th arrondissement of Paris. Manet painted this picture while a member of the National Guard during the 1870–71 Siege of Paris of the Franco-Prussian War. As opposed to the history painters of his time, Manet does not show a heroic view of battle, but rather the dusky ambiance of a looming battle. The image reflects Manet's loss of hope about the military situation, his profound loneliness, and the deprivation he suffered during this time. It is one of the few landscapes in Manet's oeuvre, and is one of Manet's first plein air paintings. Today it is in the collection of the National Museum Cardiff.

Manet uses earthly and muted tones to illustrate an urban snow landscape; between the large peaks of white and diagonals of murky brown the Paris district of Petit-Montrouge is illustrate, overshadowed by the brown dirty snow and bleak beige sky. The buildings in the background were painted with muted colours to give an appearance of balancing precariously on a huge expanse of brown.

• Richard R. Brettell: Impression : Painting quickly in France 1860–1890. Exhibit catalog, London, Amsterdam, Williamstown, Yale University Press, New Haven und London 2000, ISBN 0-300-08447-1.
• Edward Lilley: Manet's "modernity" and "Effet de neige à Petit-Montrouge" in Gazette des Beaux-Arts, September 1991
• Michael Wilson: Manet at Work. Exhibit catalog, National Gallery, London 1983, ISBN 0-901791-87-3.
• Aindrea Emelife, Ten Great Works Of Art Depicting Snow, December 2015, BBC, London. Accessed at http://www.bbc.com/culture/story/20151218-ten-great-works-of-art-depicting-snow