Early Life, Family and Training Jean Philippe Arthur Dubuffet was born on July 31, 1901, in Le Havre, France. He was raised within the comfortable confines of the wealthy bourgeoisie, the son of wholesale wine merchants. This stable, prosperous upbringing provided a backdrop of material security that stood in quiet contrast to the raw, unrefined impulses that would later define his creative output. His early years in Le Havre were shaped by this domestic stability before the pull of the capital drew him toward a different kind of existence. In 1918, Dubuffet moved to Paris to pursue formal t…