Französisches Straßenbild

Wilhelm Schnarrenberger’s painting is without doubt an image of metropolitan life. What is not necessarily clear at first glance, however, is that this is a section of the Boulevard Montparnasse in Paris.

Schnarrenberger has used a photograph from 1927 as his model, while making some decisive changes. He has shifted the frame of the picture, so that the Eiffel Tower (and thus the city’s landmark) that was present on the left of the photo is missing from his painting. Instead, he concentrates on the facades of the buildings opposite—even providing a meticulous depiction of the advertising.

Schnarrenberger’s Paris appears to be completely devoid of the dynamism which many of his contemporaries saw as the metropolis’s primary feature. His scene appears sleepy, the boulevard like a small-town setting. Nothing conveys the impression of a 1920s street pulsating with city life. Like other New Objectivist artists, Schnarrenberger depicts a scene without pathos, recording with utmost precision an essentially everyday view, which lends this painting its tension.