Bonnard's early reputation was partly based on his ability to convey an attractive dynamic image of modern life. In his review of the Salon des Indépendants of 1893, Claude Roger-Marx noted his talent for "picking out and rapidly capturing the picturesque in every spectacle". At the root of his art lay the impetus to isolate and give significance to the passing incidents of everyday existence...Bonnard's subjects were those of the flaneur. A waif-like young woman in Boulevard des Batignolles, 1895, hitches up her skirt to cross the rain-soaked street, her feet reflected in the puddles. The painting could commemorate his first meeting with Marthe, but it was more likely to have been one of those chance glimpses of an attractive face that he caught in a croquis, a quick sketch, on one of his ritual morning walks and later painted" (N. Watkins, op.cit.). The scene is similar to Scène dans la Rue: La Place Clichy (D.101) of circa 1895, in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, where once more the elegant figure of a woman, almost in silhouette, is set amidst the blurred activity of the city.

Although Bonnard is widely remembered as a painter of domestic interiors he painted innumerable city views throughout his life and won great acclaim for his celebreated series of lithographs entitled Quelques Aspects de la Vie de Paris in 1899. The theme of modern city life which had first attracted the Impressionists took on a new guise in the work of Bonnard. In a dialogue with Jean Cassou, Raymond Cogniat commmented on how with the Impressionists "le peintre est devant son sujet" whilst in Bonnard's views "le peintre est dans le sujet...Bonnard vous enferme dans la presence immédiate, nous impose le coude à notre coude avec la réalité, même sans miroir, il referme l'horizon sur l'intimité." Focusing on the human element he adapted his 'intimiste' approach creating informal and animated scenes. Sketching rapidly he captured the momentary phenomena of street-life, transposing the vivacity of his draughtmanship into his oils.

This work was given to the Hungarian artist, Josef Rippl Rónai by Bonnard. Rippl Rónai, a fellow Nabi, was a close friend of Bonnard's throughout 1890s and painted a portrait of Bonnard in 1897, now in the Ungarische Nationalgalerie, Budapest.