A doctor, teacher, and businessman from a prominent New Orleans family, Marion Sims Souchon turned to painting as second career in 1934 as he approached retirement. Souchon was chief surgeon at Hotel Dieu Hospital, visiting surgeon at Charity Hospital and other local hospitals, instructor at Tulane University, and one of the founders of Pan American Life Insurance Company.

Initially, painting was a diversion from the pressures of being a surgeon and handling life and death situations on a daily basis, but painting quickly became a passion for the aging doctor and he felt that, due to his age, he "must hurry up." For twenty years he exhibited locally with The Arts and Crafts Club of New Orleans, Delgado Museum of Art (today New...