Louis Clesse was one of the 20th-century Belgian Luminists. He received his training at the academy in Ixelles and then devoted himself to painting the villages of the Brabant countryside, spots around Oudegem and the flat countryside of Flanders, attracted as he was by the wide horizons, rivers and canals. Clesse had a strong preference for richly variegated white and gray tones, and for that reason alone he painted many snow landscapes. He was a founding member of the Association of Belgian Professional Artists and of the Cercle d'Art in Ixelles.