Maurice Mourlot (1906-1983) was a French painter, lithographer, engraver, and draughtsman, and the youngest of nine children in a renowned printing family. Showing early artistic talent, he joined the family printing house in 1922, working under his brother Fernand, who would later become head of the celebrated Atelier Mourlot. Between 1928 and 1958, Mourlot produced numerous posters for major French museums, refining his mastery of painting and lithography by copying and translating masterpieces to stone. He held his first exhibition in 1934 and exhibited regularly at the Salon des Indépendants.
In 1937, he received the City of Paris Painting Prize, followed by a year in North Africa that produced over a hundred works. Mobilised in 1939, he served in a camouflage engineering unit with fellow artists, creating numerous sketchbooks. After the war, he resumed lithography and, in 1941, settled with his companion Marcelline in Saint-Loup-de-Naud. From the late 1940s through the 1950s, he travelled widely. Named a Knight of the Order of Arts and Letters in 1960, Mourlot continued to play a central role at Imprimerie Mourlot, assisting artists and collaborating—most notably with Charles Sorlier—on major lithographic projects, including Raoul Dufy’s La Fée Électricité. Alongside this work, Mourlot pursued a personal practice encompassing landscapes, still life, nudes, animal studies, and numerous lithographs and woodcuts, typically issued in very small editions. He signed early works 'Jean-Maurice Mourlot' later simply signing 'Mourlot'.
