Jacques' childhood was spent among the draftsmen, cabinetmakers and marquetry inlayers from his father's workshops at a time when the Art Nouveau movement was in its ascendancy.

Initially, his father encouraged the young Jacques to study architecture, but after three years, he decided to take up his lifelong passion, painting.

[1] Majorelle received his art education at the École des Beaux-Arts in Nancy in 1901 and later at the Académie Julian in Paris with Schommer and Royer.

In around 1917 he travelled to Morocco to recover from heart problems and after short period spent in Casablanca, he visited Marrakech, where he fell in love with the vibrant colours and quality of light he found there.

[4] In 1919, he married Andrée Longueville and the pair lived in an apartment near the Jemâa el-Fna Square (then at the palace of Pasha Ben Daoud).

Initially, he built a house in the Mooroccan style but in 1931, he commissioned the architect, Paul Sinoir, to design a Cubist villa within the grounds.

[7] Yves Saint-Laurent and Pierre Bergé, who were keen art collectors, also began acquiring paintings by Majorelle.