Marguerite Rousseau, of Belgian origin, worked in Belgium as well as in France. Her preference was to paint seaside resorts and beach scenes, enlivened in the summer by fashionable bathers and walkers. In the autumn and winter she lived in Paris, where she settled with her easel in one of the many parks, especially in the Bois de Boulogne, to capture the strolling Parisians. The story goes that the painter could hardly part with her paintings and avoided exhibitions. At her death, the family came into possession of all her work.