Signed G. Loiseau and dated (lower right)

Loiseau, a butcher’s son, was born in Paris in 1865. As a young man he was apprenticed to a decorator, a job he particularly disliked, but his interest in art, especially landscape painting, was enhanced when his parents moved back to their hometown of Pontoise in 1884. Pontoise was important in French painting at the time, having been extensively depicted by Pissarro and Cézanne.