Jacqueline Marval was born in Grenoble in 1866. The daughter of two school teachers, she was born Marie-Joseph Vallet.

She qualified as a schoolteacher in 1884, and also began to paint under the name Marie Jacques. When her first marriage broke down after the death of an infant child, she moved to Paris to take up painting.

Marval came to the Montparnasse district and moved in with the painter Jules Flandrin, an artist later known for his paintings of the Ballet Russe, and began using the name Jacqueline Marval. She attended painting classes at the studio of Gustave Moreau, where she became a friend with Matisse and Roualt, among others. For her subject matter Marval chose to capture vibrant still lifes...