Gustave Leheutre was born at Troyes, France on July 26, 1861. In 1848 the artist studied painting under Henri Gervex, Ferdinand Humbert, and Eugene Carrière, and was later associated with the Nabis. In 1892 he was impressed by a set of Whistler etchings of Venice exhibited by Georges Petit gallery in Paris. Leheutre abandoned painting to pursue printmaking. His first prints were made in 1893 and most depict landscapes or cityscapes.

He took his first etchings to the printers Auguste and Eugene Delatre with whom he worked for most of his editioned printing. During his life he produced 160 etchings, seven drypoints and three lithographs. He was most profoundly influenced by the American etcher James MacNeill Whistler. Leheutre was elected to the Royal Society of Painter-Etchers in 1908 but resigned two years later. In 1905 he commissioned to do a series of etchings to illustrate Eugene Fromentin's 'Dominique'.