French painter, designer, and illustrator René Roussel was primarily known for his advertising posters and drawings. In the 1930s, he devoted himself to restoration and decoration work at the Palais des Trianons and Queen’s Hamlet at Versailles, and also to interior design for private houses. He moved to Issoudun in 1940 to become curator of the museum in 1946-48. He produced many views of the city of Issoudun, mostly wash drawings. Roussel painted several variations of his view to Théols, where the river bed was the largest, led by a character in a boat and walkers on the bank or on deck.