Born in 1895 in Loudéac[1] to a family of traders, her secondary studies in Rennes at the Institution de l’Immaculée Conception, included art courses by Louise Gicquel (1876–1956), who noticed her talent.

She revived the art of woodblock printing in her illustrations for the Breton nationalist book The History of our Brittany by Jeanne Coroller-Danio in 1922.

The images were greatly admired by René-Yves Creston, who considered them to provide the basis for a revived Breton style in art.

Creston collaborated with Malivel on a number of works and in the pair set up Seiz Breur, which quickly grew in influence.

The title of the movement was derived from a folk story about seven brothers ("seiz Breur" in Breton) collected and published by Malivel.