I purchased this and a few other pieces Pierre Albert Leroux (1890-1959) from a dealer in France that I found online; I think I saw this one first, and just fell in love with its immediacy, and perhaps especially the rendering of the seated cross-legged next to his campfire int he background!

While I might have guessed that he was self-taught, I have learned that Leroux, born in Versailles, trained under Academic history painters Fernand Cormon and Jean Paul Laurens and exhibited at the salon of French artists. He did his military service as a musician in an infantry formation, and later became a stretcher-bearer with the 1st Engineer Regiment. It was in these years that he made his first sketches and watercolors of combatants, which he would become known for.

Mixed media (I think ink, crayon, and watercolor) on lined paper and in very good condition, with a few ink stains I think are original to its making. Signed at lower right.  And with a pretty fabulous drawing of a horse on reverse! 8 3/4" x 6 5/8".