Roger Bissiere – “Merridor”

Roger Bissière, one of the best-known French artists of the 1950s and 60s, was born at Villereal, Lot-et-Garonne on September 22, 1886, the son of a notary. He started his career as a journalist, writing art reviews for the Parisian weekly “L’Opinion.” He began exhibiting paintings in a cubist style around 1918, and in 1920 wrote the preface to a book on Georges Braque, the first monograph on that artist.

Bissiere was closely associated with the cubist momvement, but achieved major international recognition only in the final years of his life. He is now recognized as a major figure in the history of modern French painting.

Roger Bissiere’s son, Marc-Antoine Bissiere, also became a well-known painter and graphic artist, who worked under the pseudonym Louttre B.