Manuel Azadigian was born in Malatya in the Ottoman Empire into a moderately influential family of the village on his mother's side.

By the time of his birth, many of his relatives had already begun immigrating to the United States for a better life and to escape persecution they faced as Armenians.

He studied at the Académie de la Grande Chaumière and a French article at the time wrote that while he was an unknown in Paris, he should prove to become known very quickly due to his precision and talent.

During this time he painted his masterpiece "The Russian Poet", which was hailed by John Singer Sargent as surpassing some of his own works when he saw it in exhibition.

Azadigian also spent time working in Rome and Venice as well before returning to America in 1923, perhaps due to his father falling ill.

Through this contact he was introduced to the famous actress Hazel Dawn, who invited him to her Amityville estate to paint her portrait.

Dawn had him rushed to her brother-in-law, noted New York doctor Emmett Browning, who discovered Manuel was fatally afflicted with cancer.

In the 2010s, a historian took up the cause of spreading awareness about Azadigian's tragic story in hopes that paintings he might have sold during his lifetime still exist in private collections.

After nearly a decade, an Azadigian surfaced at an estate sale in New York, which was later sold at auction under the title "Spring in the Valley"[2] for three times above the maximum estimate.