Gaston Boucart (1878-1962) was born in Angoulême in south west France. Based in France throughout his life, Boucart travelled extensively across France and Italy where he particularly delighted in capturing the unique waterways of Venice under a bright and colourful brush. Boucart studied at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts in Paris, where he was taught by the progressive artists Gustave Moreau, Aimé Morot and Fernand Cormon. These leading historical painters in the academic style gave Boucart a traditional education which he later abandoned for a more impressionistic style of landscape painting. Boucart was deeply inspired by the impressionists and applied vivid colours to his landscapes, creating shimmering scenes where light dances across the water. His impressionistic depictions of Venice and paintings of French ports became his forte but his oeuvre also included architectural subjects, cityscapes and scenes of the French rural countryside. Boucart exhibited his landscapes at the Paris Salon from 1913 to 1939, and went on to become a member there, receiving an honourable mention in 1928 and a knighthood for his services to art in 1937. He also became exhibited with the French Federation of Artists in 1927 and 1929. A number of Boucart’s works were acquired by the French state and examples of his work can be found in the collection of the museums of Angouleme, Niort and Rochefort-sur Mer.