Numa Marzocchi de Bellucci Français, 1846-1930

French Orientalist painter and decorative artist of Italian descent

Born on January 31, 1846, in Paris, Numa Marzocchi de Bellucci came from an Italian artistic lineage; his father, Tito, was a painter. He trained at the École des Beaux-Arts under Alexandre Cabanel. A pivotal trip to Algeria in 1876 inspired a body of Orientalist work: portraits, Moorish interiors, Casbah scenes, and frescoes.

He later specialized in portable frescoes and developed an innovative canvas marouflage technique, shared in artistic circles in Paris and Brussels, earning a gold medal in 1895. In 1900, he contributed to the decoration of the famed Le Train Bleu restaurant at Gare de Lyon with a fresco of Èze.

Married in Algeria in 1876 and again in 1908, he maintained a Paris studio before settling at Château de Chincé in Jaunay-Clan (Vienne), where he continued his creative and technical work. In 1925, he published a treatise on his movable fresco method.

Naturalized French in 1891, he died on August 25, 1930, at Château de Chincé. His legacy includes Orientalist paintings, frescoes, public commissions, and technical innovations that blend academic tradition with decorative innovation.