Gustave Loiseau
(1865–1935)

Gustave Loiseau Biography
(1865–1935)

Born in Paris in 1865, Gustave Loiseau was a Post-Impressionist painter renowned for his crosshatched depictions of landscapes. He practiced professionally as a decorator and essentially taught himself to paint around Paris, where he met lifelong friend and painter Maxime Maufra. After receiving an inheritance from his grandmother, Loiseau had the opportunity to study life drawing and hone his artistic skills at the École des Arts Décoratifs, where he met landscape artist Fernand Just Quignon. 

Loiseau would leave the school a year after enrolling and joined the Pont-Aven artists’ colony in Brittany, befriending Paul Gauguin and Émil Bernard. He would soon develop his signature crosshatch style, the “en trellis” technique. He also painted “en plein air”, exploring light and forms like the Impressionists before him while modernizing his painterly expression in his landscapes and bustling Paris street scenes. His works evoke a range of feelings, from the vibrancy of Paris to more melancholic feelings due to his avoidance of vibrant light and focus on the ever-changing weather patterns, from rain, frost, and fog to morning mist, overcast skies and sunlight breaking through clouds. Loiseau settled in Paris and mainly painted life along the Seine. He would often return to Pont-Aven and the coast of Normandy, notably Étretat, Fécamp and Dieppe, painting still lifes of the flora and fauna. 

In 1890 and 1896, Loiseau’s works were shown in Impressionist exhibitions. In 1893, he exhibited at the Salon des Indépendants and in 1895, at the Galerie Durand-Ruel. Loiseau died in 1935 in Paris. His works can be found in the collections of various public institutions, including the Art Institute of Chicago, the Musée d’Orsay in Paris, and the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York.