Edouard Henry-Laurent was born in Paris in 1859. He exhibited in avant-garde galleries including Le Barc de Boutteville in 1894, 1896 and 1897, then at the Salon d'Automne in 1903 and 1906, and at the Salon de la Societe Nationale des Beaux-Arts in 1911. He painted views of Paris and was a member of the Crozant School, a group of artists, including Claude Monet and Armand Guillaumin, who found inspiration in the Creuse valleys.