Gustave Loiseau (1865-1935) was one of the most accomplished French Post-Impressionist landscape painters of his generation, whose atmospheric depictions of the French countryside secured him a distinctive place within the broader Impressionist tradition. It has been suggested that Loiseau's style of painting falls somewhere between Camille Pissarro and Alfred Sisley. In many ways it was Claude Monet who had the greatest influence on him, and one can see a natural relationship in their brushwork and interests. He was also influenced by such painters as Paul Gauguin and Maxime Maufra. Ultimately Loiseau experimented with his own ideas, and he stands as an Impressionist with a strong personal style. His landscapes reflected an Impressionist vision inflected with a Divisionist touch. Loiseau found his "pure painting ideals" in a Post-Impressionist style derived directly from the observation of nature firsthand, and he had a particular interest in the depiction of water within a landscape.

Born to shopkeepers who moved to the Île Saint-Louis in Paris shortly after his birth, Loiseau acquired only a basic education, as he was expected to help with the family store at an early age. In his free time the young boy would sketch and do copies of prints. After a serious illness, he convinced his parents to allow him to pursue his artistic inclinations, and Loiseau became an apprentice to a decorator. Through this experience the young man met the painter Fernand Just Quignon, who would become his first real instructor and inspiration to focus on landscape painting.

In 1890 Loiseau moved to Pont-Aven, where he befriended Maxime Maufra, Émile Dezaunay, and Henry Moret, artists who influenced his Impressionist style and convinced him to exhibit his paintings at the Salon des Indépendants in 1891 and 1892. In 1894 Loiseau met Paul Gauguin after his return from Tahiti, and a deep friendship grew between the two artists.

Loiseau traveled often throughout the countryside of France. He liked to paint in series, much like Monet, and attempted to capture scenes at different times of the day. He chose to depict the transformations in nature caused by changing light. Sensitive as he was to every nuance, he refused to paint in the glaring midday light. Bright colors hurt his eyes, and he preferred softer, subtler scenes: afternoons when the sky is dotted with clouds, the soft golden light at the end of the day, morning fog and evening mists, and the dreamy effects of snow. His paintings are held today in the Musée d'Orsay and in major museums throughout the world, where they remain among the most sensitive expressions of French Post-Impressionist landscape.