A friend of Bonnard, Vuillard and Matisse, Lebasque was known as one of the Intimists, painting pictures of family activities. Lebasqaue often portrayed his own family, but in such a way as to convey a universal sense of family gathering and affection.
Like Monet's and van Gogh's attempts to resolve thematic or compositional problems in their work, he often painted a subject several times in nearly identical attitudes. In his later life he was hailed as the painter of "joy and light" by curators of the Louvre.
