Maurice Estève was born in Culan France in 1904. He began painting from 1915 and studies at the Montparnasse worshops a few years later. In 1930, he settled down his own atelier. Self-taught painter, one time into the influence of the surrealists (1927-29 ) in Paris with Giorgio de Chirico, full of admiration for Braque, dedicating a real passion for Cézanne, the artist hesitated a long time between representational art and abstract art. His art met consecration in 1987, with a museum created in the Hotel des Echevins (Bourges), at which 125 works were given.

Estève was also a draftsman and a water colourist, an etcher, a lithographer (his first work was made in 1955 at Mourlot’s workshop); collages also constituted separate creations. His first retrospective was organized, in 1948, in the Gallery Louis Carré (Paris), same gallery which still exposed Esteve’s works lately.

Esteve settled finally back to Culan and died there on June 2001.