Galerie Paul Prouté

Although an underappreciated painter, Norbert Goeneutte was an active and renowned printmaker. He was initially trained at the École des Beaux-Arts in Isidore Pils’s studio. He later became involved in Impressionist circles and was truly introduced to printmaking by his friends Marcellin Desboutin and Henri Guérard. Among all the engraving techniques Goeneutte mastered, etching and drypoint were his favorites in his prints, which are often skillfully inked and retouched.
What stands out in his works is his keen observation of Parisian life, his fascination with both urban and seascapes, and his delight in depicting those close to him—whether family or artist friends. Among his favorite subjects, women—and more specifically, Parisian women—bring his works to life. They are depicted focused on their needlework, dozing, playful, or even mischievous. Among these women, Goeneutte preferred his sisters Nathalie and Anna as models, as well as Marguerite, the daughter of Dr. Gachet, with whom the engraver was close. It was, moreover, on the latter’s advice that Goeneutte settled in the village—albeit a small artistic hub—of Auvers-sur-Oise in 1891. It was there that he died in 1894 at the age of only forty.
Despite a relatively short career, Norbert Goeneutte was a talented and prolific engraver; we know of more than two hundred prints by him. In France, the Musée Carnavalet and the Bibliothèque nationale de France hold extensive collections of the artist’s engravings. His work is also widely represented at the New York Public Library, as part of the vast collection of the art dealer Samuel Putnam Avery, who had assembled nearly the entire body of the engraver’s work. Between 1994 and 1995, the Musée de Pontoise organized an exhibition dedicated to the artist’s engravings, curated by Christophe Duvivier.