Gauguin did not begin to paint until 1873, two years after he had started a successful career in the Paris banking and brokerage firm Bertin at no. 1, Rue Lafitte, a position secured for him through the good family relations of the firm with Gustave Aros, a long time family friend.

Together with Emile Schuffenecker, a colleague he had met at Bertin, he attended night classes at the Académie Colarossi in the Rue de la Grande and his Sundays were spent painting on the banks of the Seine in Paris. His first success came in 1876 when one of his landscapes Paysage de Viroflay (possibly G. Wildenstein, Gauguin, Paris, 1964, no. 12) was accepted by the Salon, followed by works shown in the 5th, 6th and 7th Impressionist Exhibitions. It was not until ten years later, however, in 1883 that Gauguin resigned his job and decided to devote his life entirely to painting. His successful career at Bertin and his association with an increasing number of artists had allowed Gauguin to form a collection himself, which included works by Manet, Pissarro, Renoir, Monet, Sisley and Cézanne, whom he admired above all, and their influence on him is clearly noticeable in the present picture.

The subject matter of the present painting, depicting the same houses and factories on the Quai de Grenelle between the pont d'Iéna and the pont de Grenelles and a glimpse on the right hand side of what is today Trocadero, was rendered in several other pictures executed in the same year. (G. Wildenstein, op. cit., nos. 13, 14 and 15.)

To be included in the forthcoming new edition of the Gauguin catalogue raisonné currently being prepared by the Wildenstein Institute