Loiseau, like many of the Impressionist painters, found inspiration at the Normandy coast. This region, with its stunning natural features such as the cliffs at the Porte d'Amont and the Porte d’Aval, with its iconic formation known as the Aiguille, had been popular with writers and painters of the preceding generation, including Delacroix, Corot, Boudin and Courbet. These pioneering painters, whose compositions eschewed the staid classicism of the Italianate style which predominated at the beginning of the nineteenth century, found Normandy to hold numerous advantages. While near enough to Paris for convenient travel and trade, the cost of living remained low, and it was endowed with an idyllic countryside encircled by a coastline of majestic beauty. The unique geologic formations were immortalized by Monet, whose series from 1883 captured the dramatic coastline and changing effects of light illuminating the topography and water. Loiseau's similarly atmospheric depiction of the white chalk cliffs capture his own changing perception of the scene.
(right) Gustave Loiseau, Falaises de Saint-Jouin, 1907, oil on canvas, sold: Sotheby’s, New York, May 15, 2018, lot 106 for $ 337,500 .
