Marcel Mouly 1918-2008

Marcel Mouly was born in Paris on 6th February 1918. He was a French painter and printmaker.

In 1931, at the age of 13, Mouly left school and started work. In 1935, he began taking night classes at an art Academy in the Montparnasse district of Paris until he was conscripted into the French military in 1938. In 1940, during the occupation of France, Mouly returned to civilian life and, along with fellow artist Vichy Edouard Pignon, rented the Boulogne studio of famed modernist sculptor Jacques Lipchitz (1891-1973) who introduced Mouly to Cubism.

In 1945 Mouly's paintings were exhibited (alongside paintings by Matisse) at the Salon d'Automne in Paris, he took part in the open art forums of the Ecole de Boulogne, and studied with Leger, Pignon, and Bertin. The following year, he exhibited at the Salon du Mai. By the mid-1940s, Mouly's art began to gain notoriety from his peers and collectors and his first solo exhibition was held at the Libraire Bergamesque in 1949. By the mid 1950s Mouly was an established painter with his own unique style. He then began to work as a printmaker.

Mouly exhibited both his paintings and printmaking extensively. Examples of his works are held in the collections of the Museum of Modern Art in Paris, Japan and Helsinki, the Museum of Geneva and Paris' Bibliotheque Nationale. He has also been the subject of numerous books, and recognized by such honors as the Chevalier de L'Orde des Arts et Lettres (1957) and the Premier Prix de Lithographie (1973). Mouly is also famed to been the last surviving student of Pablo Picasso.

The art historian and writer Joseph Jacobs wrote (of Mouly's work) "It is an art about beauty and life, an art about the more familiar and comfortable world we live in and know. In this respect, Mouly is quintessentially French, his roots firmly planted in the School of Paris. Picasso, Braque, Matisse, Rouault, Vlaminck, Chagall, Vuillard, and Dufy are his patrimony, and he has carried their mantel with unflagging dedication."

Marcel Mouly died on 7th January 2008, aged 89.