Marcel Mouly

Biography of Marcel Mouly

Marcel Mouly was born in 1918, in Paris. Coming from a modest background, his father was a blacksmith, he drew at a very young age, out of pleasure, out of passion. It was as an apprentice, at the age of 13, that he moved to Normandy in the early 1930s, and it was there that he made his first real drawings.

His military service and the general mobilization that followed brought him to the Cotentin peninsula, where he fell seriously ill in the winter of 1939. After recovering, he joined Cherbourg, before a leave brought him back to Paris. And it was while he was in the Capital that the French capitulation was signed.

Freed from his military duties, he returned to his drawings. These led him to the beaches of Houlagte in 1942 where he was arrested by the Gestapo, due to being in a sensitive area, and spent three months in secret at the Fresnes prison. Released, drawing became his reason for living.

It was the post-war years that marked the true beginnings of Marcel Mouly's career. He was thirty years old and was accepted at the Salon d'Automne, then at the Salon de Mai where he exhibited alongside the greatest artists of the time: Matisse, Picasso, Léger, Pignon (who was one of his friends), Manessier, Bazaine.

In 1946, he moved to La Ruche, met Picasso and Brancusi, and developed (through hard work) a painting that draws on the contributions of Cubism (perfect composition and deconstruction of perspective), the forces of Fauvism à la Matisse (impact of colors that juxtapose and sing together), and a synthesis of realism and abstraction.

Noticed by Opera Gallery, the 1970s saw him enter the very exclusive circle of painters exhibiting all over the world. The 1980s would take him even higher: American recognition that propelled him into the pantheon of artists whose works are sold on the evening of the opening...

His collaboration, for lithographs, with Park West Gallery, made him one of the most sought-after and well-known artists across the Atlantic, while France still lagged behind in recognizing the unique talent of this prodigious son.

He passed away on the eve of his 90th year, on January 7, 2008.

(c) Natacha PELLETIER for PASSION ESTAMPES