Born in Paris, on the Boulevard de Vaugirard in 1903. Bernard Lamotte always wanted to be a painter, at the age of six after visiting his ill father in the hospital, he returned home to record the scene in the smallest of details. At the age of 13, a fall down a staircase hospitalized him for two years, then kept him bedridden at home for another. His favorite pastime was watching the changing mood and atmosphere of the Rue de Faubourg St. Honore below his bedroom window.

At age 17 he was accepted to the Ecole des Beaux-Arts and studied under Fernand Corman and Lucien Simon. Lamotte had moved to New York City by 1935, where he was based during most of his artistic life. Within one year, he had secured a one-man show at the Wildenstei...