With a wintry view of Neuss, Max Clarenbach had his first sweeping success before 1900, which made his name run through the art scene like wildfire. The Romanian Queen Carmen Sylva acquired the painting by the young painter at an exhibition at the Düsseldorf Art Association and, according to tradition, wants to take it with her right away. When trying to remove his painting from the exhibition, the young painter is said to have been harshly rejected by the guards: “Mr. Clarenbach has to come himself.” Clarenbach painted wintry views of his hometown Neuss, with the harbor and often with the towers of St. Quirinus, mostly in the early days. These paintings are correspondingly rare and should only constitute a very small part of his total oeuvre.