Emile Claus studied painting at Antwerp Academy in his native Belgium from 1869 to 1874. He was trained in a traditional manner and at first became a successful portrait painter. In 1883 his style changed completely and after spending several years in Paris from 1888, he was influenced by Impressionism becoming friends with artists such as Claude Monet and incorporating the Impressionists’ preoccupation with atmosphere and light into his work. In 1904 Claus became one of the founding members of Vie et Lumière, a group of Belgian painters, who focused on 'luminism', a combination of Impressionism and pointillism (creating an image from a series of dots), of which this work is a prime example.