Eugène Galien-Laloue (1854–1941) was born on 11 December 1854 in Montmartre, Paris, the eldest of nine children of French-Italian parents. He studied under his father, the set designer Charles Laloue, and from 1877 he exhibited at the Salon of the Société des Artistes Français.
He became one of the best-known painters of Belle Époque Paris, famous for his gouache and watercolour views of the boulevards, quays and squares, with their horse-drawn carriages, trams and crowds, often in snow or on autumn and winter days. He also painted landscapes of Normandy and the Seine-et-Marne region and, in 1914, was commissioned to work as a military illustrator. A private man, he also signed many works with pseudonyms such as J. Lievin, Galiany and L. Dupuy, a habit often linked to his contracts with dealers.
Galien-Laloue died on 18 April 1941 in Chérence, in the Val-d’Oise, at the home of his daughter, where the family had taken refuge at the start of the Second World War. His paintings are in the museums of La Rochelle, Louviers and Mulhouse.