Andre Vignoles was born in the southwest part of France on August 5, 1920. He followed a course of classic studies but was attracted to drawing at an early age and gave much of his time to it. He began to paint with a student of Flandria, one of the first Fauves, who studied in the atelier of Gustave Moreau. As he continued his study of painting, Vignoles was attracted by the art of Cezanne, Van Gogh and the Primitives of the 15th century.

In 1945 Vignoles married and moved to Nice but shortly went to live at Vallauris, where he worked in ceramics to earn his living, though his spare time was devoted completely to painting. It was in 1945 that Vignoles first met Pierre Bonnard. Bonnard gave the young artist both advice and encouragem...