This painting by Louis Anquetin is considered as one of the representative works of Cloisonnism, a style characterized by areas of flat colors “partitioned” (or cloisonné) by thick black outlines. The composition immediately brings up images of stained-glass windows and Japanese woodblock prints

Born and raised in Normandy, Anquetin went to Paris to learn painting, where he became friend with Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec and Vincent van Gogh as they studied together at Atelier Cormon

This picture offers a glimpse of Paris during the Belle Époque at a spot close to the artist’s home in Montmartre. In the background the Avenue de Clichy parts to the left, and the Avenue de Saint-Ouen to the right. Here, a rainy late afternoon (evidenced by the water reflections on the ground) in melancholic blue is illuminated by yellow gas lights and warm orange-red emanating from the butcher’s shop on the left. The depiction of a shop of this trade is believed to be an allusion to the artist's father who owned a butcher business in Normandy

Anquetin’s work was exhibited together with those by Van Gogh at a small exhibition at a nearby restaurant in 1887 titled “Peintres du Petit Boulevard” (or Painters of the Small Boulevard, in contrast with the exhibitions by established artists which took place at famous galleries located on the grand boulevards). Van Gogh likely got the inspiration for his Café Terrace at Night created in the following year from this painting