Juliette Élisa Bataille (1896–?) was born in Pas-de-Calais, France, the third child in a family of ten. She married in 1917 and moved to Paris to live with her sister when her husband was called up for the army. After working as a salesgirl and tram driver, she became a florist. When her husband returned from the war he had outbursts of violence and beat her. At about forty, Juliette Elisa Bataille showed signs of mental disturbance, which led to her internment, first in Maison-Blanche, then at Ville-Evrard hospital.
For the next three years or so, she embroidered rectangular cards with thick wool, cotton, and silk thread. The pictures often depict buildings with a linear, dynamic structure. Windows and roofs are firmly outlined and the sky or facades are filled in with large areas of flat colour. In 1948–49 she began to draw with pastel on paper or cardboard, using the same creative process: the figures are sketched in with short, firm strokes, and the use of bright colours heightens the expressiveness of her drawings.