Gustave Loiseau

French (1865-1935)

Gustave Loiseau was born in Paris in 1865. He was largely self-taught and during his youth worked as an apprentice to a decorator. An inheritance from his grandmother allowed him to concentrate fully on painting and he moved to Montmartre where he enrolled at the École des Arts Décoratifs for a year.

In 1888 Loiseau visited Pont-Aven where he met Paul Gauguin, as well as Maxime Maufra and Emile Bernard. Beginning in 1893 he exhibited at the Salon des Indépendants and after 1895 at the Galerie Durand-Ruel. The artist made a number of journeys along the Seine, to Pont-Aven and the Channel coast. Between 1902 and 1904 he visited Étretat, Fécamp and Dieppe. Loiseau painted the Seine as it ran through Paris, Herblay, Marly-le-Roi and Triel as well as its tributaries, especially the Yonne from Auxerre onwards.

Loiseau’s works are in the Musee d’Orsay, Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Art Institute of Chicago.