When it snows in a city it doesn’t stay picture-perfect, crisp and white for long; the French painter Édouard Manet shows urban snow as it really is here. Between the large peaks of white and diagonals of murky brown we can make out the Paris district of Petit-Montrouge, overshadowed by the dirty snow and bleak beige sky. The buildings seem to balance precariously on a huge expanse of brown. Manet was never one to sugar-coat things – but this image eschews snow’s association with purity and tranquility, focusing instead on the problematic effects of extreme weather. From 1870 to 1871 Manet served in the National Guard during the Franco-Prussian conflict. The foreboding dusk and sludgy melted snow could suggest a battle looming ahead – but there is no heroism or triumph here. Battle or no battle, the weather is one of life’s great equalisers.