Fernande Le Gris (1922–2018) was born in Deauville, France. Leaving home at the age of fifteen, she had a number of jobs: bursar, receptionist in a large hotel in Paris, and teacher. Moving to the outskirts of Paris, she then worked as an assistant bookkeeper, taking advantage of her free time to improve her education and travel. She suffered from poor health and had to undergo several major operations. 
In 1963, at the age of forty-two, she lost her partner and began sculpting and painting, mainly at night. Le Gris created both abstract and figurative compositions, giving life to human, animal, and plant worlds. Some of her works also have a strong religious character. Using coloured pencil and paint, she worked slowly and meticulously, also employing ballpoint pen to ‘knit’ small circles. Faces are a recurrent theme in her work and are generally inexpressive, sometimes tending towards geometric abstraction. She moved to the Basque country in the late 1980s, where her painting reflected the calm local atmosphere and its landscape and wildlife.