Victor Gabriel Gilbert was a pupil of Louis Emile Adan, Eugène Levasseur and Charles Busson. He first exhibited at the Paris Salon in 1873 with two genre paintings. He was popular as a child painter and portraitist, but his city scenes were particularly sought after. Gilbert liked to spend time in the Paris market halls for his studies, where he captured amusing scenes and worked them out in oil with technical finesse. The colourful Parisian life with its public squares, the boulevards and parks, the stalls and the people hurrying about fascinated him and were appreciated by his audience.