Louis Marcoussis was born Ludwig Casimir Ladislas Markus in Warsaw, on November 14, 1878. In 1901 he entered the Academy of Fine Arts of Cracow to study painting with Jan Crzegorz Stanislawski. In 1903 Markus moved to Paris, where he worked briefly under Jules Lefebvre at the Académie Julian* and became a friend of La Fresnaye and Robert Lotiron. He exhibited for the first time at the Salon d'Automne* in 1905 and at the Salon des Indépendants* in 1906, and was often represented in both salons in subsequent years.

In Paris he made his living by selling caricatures* to satirical periodicals, including La Vie Parisienne and Le Journal. He frequented the cafés, such as the Rotonde, Cirque Médrano and the E...