Outstanding c.1900 cityscape oil sketch by French artist Louis Dumoulin (1860-1924). Oil on panel measures 17 1/2  x 21 5/8 inches. The piece is executed on an L. Besnard art supply panel. Some loss along right margin due to moisture exposure. Signed lower right.  

The artist, Louis Dumoulin, is now primarily remembered for painting in Japan and the Far East where he spent much of his adulthood. In his lifetime he was more well-known, a respected artist and the founder of La Societé Coloniale des Artistes Français - a significant force in the transmission of artistic ideas into the French colonial territories at a time of intense international political and cultural competition. He was also an intimate of some great figures of the period, including Eduard Manet and Paul Verlaine. As a young painter, he made visits to Manet's studio and was taught to observe closely different aspects of Paris. Manet later introduced him to the painter Henri Gervex, who also played a role in Dumoulin's artistic development.