Daniel Authouart

Daniel Authouart was born in 1943 in Lillebonne, France. In 1953 he moved to Rouen with his parents, in a dangerous neighborhood marked by rising criminality after World War II. At the age of 14 he dropped out of school an couldn't go to Art School before the age of 16, so he spent two years learning how to draw and paint from painter Gustave Legros. Copying a painting by Toulouse-Lautrec, "Au Moulin Rouge", was a revelation for him, at a time when he didn't know much about art. Daniel Authouart was accepted at the Rouen Beaux-Arts at the age of 16 and studied painting, interior architecture and advertising. After graduation he taught art, but in 1972 he decided to dedicate himself entirely to painting.