Gustave LOISEAU
Paris 1865 - Paris 1935
Biography
Abandoning a career as a house painter, Gustave Loiseau took up painting around 1884 and had devoted himself to it entirely by 1887. Apart from a year at the Ecole des Arts Décoratifs, he was largely self-taught as a painter. In 1890 he stayed for some months in the town of Pont-Aven in Brittany, joining the little artistic community there and befriending painters such as Maxime Maufra and Henry Moret. In 1893 he joined the Société des Artists Indépendants and exhibited six paintings at the group’s annual exhibition. In 1897 Loiseau entered into a contract with the Galerie Durand-Ruel, which agreed to buy most of his paintings, thereby allowing the artist a measure of financial freedom. For the remainder of his career, he was to travel tirelessly in Brittany, Normandy and the Ile-de-France, painting numerous landscapes along the Seine and elsewhere. His style remained distinctively his own; as Loiseau once noted of himself, ‘I only acknowledge one quality, that of being sincere. I work in my own little corner, as well as I can, and do my best to convey the impression I receive from nature. Only my instinct guides me, and I am proud I do not resemble anyone.’
