The institution was founded in 1919 by a French Orientalist painter named Édouard Brindeau de Jarny, who started his career teaching drawing at Lycée Lyautey.

[2][1] Resident General Hubert Lyautey tasked Brindeau and Prosper Ricard [fr] with cataloguing Moroccan visual heritage to inform the guidelines for vocational schools and the reform of traditional industries.

[1] Brindeau convinced Resident General Lyautey and Georges Hardy [fr], director of public education under the French Protectorate, to establish a school of fine arts in Casablanca's medina.

[1] Abdeslam Ben Larbi el Fassi, whom Italian art teacher Toni Maraini [fr] described as "the first Modern Moroccan artist," was one of the school's first students.

"[5] In 1969, the Casablanca Art School held an exposition manifeste entitled "Présence Plastique" in the Jemaa el-Fnaa of Marrakesh, displaying their work in public.