He was born in Charleville-Mézières in 1908 in the Ardennes and his earliest works were on the lepidopteran fauna of the district.
Later in his life he visited many afrotropical and oriental countries and spent time in Madagascar studying the fauna and describing about one third of the geometrid species of the island.
[1] He was portrayed in his obituary as A biography has been published by one of his friends, Philippe Darge.
[2] His best known works include Volumes I and II (Moths) of the Lepidoptera of France, Belgium and Switzerland which was published in 1948 and 1949.
[1] The list of his 286 works is provided by the Munich Museum[3] He was elected president of the Société entomologique de France in 1953.