Born Paris 1918. Died 2008.

Mouly had a variety of jobs after leaving school and in 1935 while working for a wine merchant he started attending part-time classes at the French Academies in Montparnasse, Paris. This was interrupted by military service and during the German occupation of France he and a fellow artist were arrested without travel documents and falsely imprisoned as spies. During this period he became determined to pursue a career in art and after release in 1943 he joined the studio of Jacques Lipchitz; he became a protégé of the celebrated modernist sculptor and began exhibiting in Paris – in 1945, alongside Matisse in the Salon d’Automne.

In 1946 he moved to La Ruche, a building in the 15th arrondissement which housed the studios of many of the outstanding artists of the day, including Zadkine, Chagall, Léger, Modigliani and Soutine. Mouly also became a friend of Picasso whose cubist aesthetic, together with the vibrant Fauvist colour of Matisse, was to become a major influence on his painting.

His first solo show was held in Paris in 1949 and subsequently exhibited widely throughout the world; he is featured in many European public collections including the Museum of Modern Art in Paris, the Bibliotheque Nationale, the Museum of Geneva and the Museum of Modern Art in Helsinki. He was made Chevalier de L'Orde des Arts et Lettres in 1957 and awarded the Premier Prix de Lithographie in 1973.

Amalfi Blue