Marcel Bascoulard

1913-1978 · Bourges, France

The Diogenes of Bourges: a vagrant of legendary draughtsmanship who lived in the shell of an abandoned truck and photographed himself in dresses of his own design.

The life

Bascoulard was born in Vallenay, France in 1913 and after finishing middle school at seventeen chose the life of an ascetic, settling on the edge of Bourges in a makeshift shelter built from the remains of an abandoned truck. A recluse who knew everyone in town, a vagrant rumoured to have a small fortune, he taught himself several languages and drew with an astonishing visual memory. He bartered and sold his drawings of the city to locals for decades. From 1942 until his death he also photographed himself in women’s clothes he designed and made himself, saying simply that he found it more aesthetic. He was murdered in January 1978; a 23-year-old was convicted, though doubts about the case linger.

The work

Near-photographic drawings of Bourges, its cathedral and medieval streets, in ink, coloured pencil and pastel smudged with his fingers on recycled paper, alongside landscape paintings and a remarkable decades-long series of staged self-portrait photographs. His work is held by the American Folk Art Museum, the Centre Pompidou and the Pinault Collection.

Why we love them

He refused every comfort except precision. The town that stepped around him in the street now files him under national treasure.

Go deeper

• Marcel Bascoulard at the Outsider Art Fair
• Marcel Bascoulard on Wikipedia
• Pinault Collection
• Where to see outsider art, our full list of museums and collections.
• The glossary, if any of the terms here are new.

Kindred spirits

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