The Post-Impressionist painter Léon Detroy spent most of his life in the Creuse Valley, voluntarily isolated. He had trained at the École des beaux arts in Paris with Jean-Paul Lorens, but an encounter with Claude Monet and a text by George Sand made such an impression on him that he decided to move away from academicism and the city to embrace a new vision of painting in the open air. In addition to landscapes and still lifes, Detroy practised portraiture, naturally with models who were far removed from the Parisian elite and who stood out for their truthful, naturalistic gaze.