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Norbert Goeneutte produced engravings, sketches, prints and paintings. A student of Pils at the School of Beaux-Arts in Paris, Goeneutte began working in 1874, and he exhibited his works at the Salon for the first time in 1867. His best known work is The Boulevard de Clichy under Snow (Tate Gallery, London).
He was among the young artists who were influenced by the Impressionists. He knew Manet, Degas and Renoir, whose subjects he often borrowed, as seen in his piece, Moulin de la Galette. He essentially painted scenes of Paris life. In the 1880s, he traveled to Normandy, then to Venice, Holland, and London, where he painted several landscapes. He was one of the founders of the French Society of Painter-Engravers in 1889, and he was a part of its first exhibitions.
In 1891, Dr. Gachet diagnosed Goeneutte with heart disease and advised him to settle in Auvers-sur-Oise. The painter moved his family to the house of the engraver Martinez. Goeneutte completed a portrait of Dr. Gachet in 1891, displayed today at the Musée d’Orsay. He died in 1894 in Auvers.
Aside from a few landscapes in which his style got progressively lighter, he primarily sketched and painted female silhouettes, elegant and typically Parisian. Despite—or perhaps because of—his relationship with Manet, Goeneutte was among the artists who was immediately surrounded by the Impressionist influence but did not entirely adhere to their vision, holding on, in a sense, to elements of the Romantic and Realist traditions. For Goeneutte, still life paintings were uncommon, though a few notable examples exist, such as The Cellar (1893). The watercolour displayed here bears a resemblance to the works of Eva Gonzalès; Goeneutte was close to her and her husband Henri Guérard, and he painted many portraits of the couple. We can consider that the two painters worked together and mutually influenced one another’s works.
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