Fernand Pinal (1881-1958) was born at Bruyères-et-Montbérault, a small village in the heart of the Aisne department. His taste for drawing started at a very early age. As a child, he discovered the landscapes of the Marne River and Orxois. His father was a civil servant and was in post successively in Gandelu, Charly-sur-Marne, and Meaux, which was his last assignment. Fernand Pinal was an only child and to please his father he became a senior civil servant. At the same time, he kept painting and engraving. He became an illustrator of poetic and musical magazines. Pinal was the friend of many painters such as Eugène Buland, Gustave Valérian, and Le Sidaner. On the 1st of August 1914, he was drafted into the army and sent to Laon in an artillery battalion but because of his small size and near-sightedness was sent back to Paris to the telephone control commission. After the first battle of la Marne every time he was on leave, he would go to the Marne valley between Lagny and Meaux to paint. There were many ruins in the valley and that was his main subject for the time. The critics of the day named him “the painter of the devastated region”. He was a member of: le Salon des Artistes français, la Société Nationale des Beaux-Arts du Salon d’Hiver, le comité des aquafortistes français. Pinal died October 12th, 1958 in his studio at Romeny-sur-Marne.
Pinal’s paintings can be found in the following museums: Musée Franco-américain de Blérancourt, Musée de Laon, Musée Jean de La Fontaine de Château-Thierry, Mairie d’Essômes-sur-Marne, Mairie de Romeny-sur-Marne, Mairie de Charly-sur-Marne, Mairie de Saint-Gengoulph, Musée Bossuet de Meaux, Musée Gatien-Bonnet de Lagny-sur-Marne, Musée de Royan, Charente-Maritime, Musée de la Ville de Paris