Jean Dubuffet was born in Le Havre in 1901, in a wealthy family of wholesale wine merchants. He applied for the Ecole des Beaux-Arts when he was still in high school. After graduating, he settled in Paris to devote his career to painting. He attended the Académie Julian for 6 months, and then decided to work by his own in his studio in the quarter of la Chaussée d’Antin. This is when he met Suzanne Valadon, Elise Lascaux, Max Jacob and Charles-Albert Cingria. At the end of his military service, Dubuffet went through a critical time and rejected the idea of becoming a painter. He met many artists and writers thanks to Jean Paulhan and started to practice engraving and lithography with Fernand Mourlot. In 1944, René Drouin organised his first solo exhibition. Despite good reviews, the event caused a public scandal. In 1947, 1948 and 1949, Dubuffet travelled to Algeria and was attracted by Bedouin tribes, which later inspired him for series of paintings and drawings. His art dealer Pierre Matisse organised numerous exhibitions in New York, meanwhile Dubuffet produced exhibitions on the concept of “Art Brut” (“Raw Art” or “Outsider Art”) in Paris. In the 1950s, Dubuffet executedmany series based on relief and texture, marked by thick brushstrokes and various mediums. In the 1960s, many retrospectives paid tribute to his successful career: Paris, Denmark, London, New York, Chicago and Los Angeles. He worked at that time between Venceand Le Touquet, and created his series “l’Hourloupe”. In 1966, he exclusively focused on sculpture andworked withpolystyrene. It is only by 1974 that the artist took up painting anddrawing again,and continuedworking in series. Jean Dubuffet died in 1985 in his home on rue de Vaugirard in Paris.