Michel-Marie Poulain (born 5 December 1906, Nogent-sur-Marne,[5] died 9 February 1991, Mandelieu-la-Napoule[6][7]) was a French transgender performer and self-taught[8] painter whose work was influenced by Matisse and by Raoul and Jean Dufy,[2] and whose style and technique were compared to those of Bernard Buffet[8] and Marc Chagall.

"[14] In 1926, "at the age of twenty, Michel-Marie cut her long curls for the first time,"[14] and, as a man, performed military service with a stint in the French dragoons (cavalry).

As an acrobat, she debuted at the Cirque d'hiver and performed with the Texas-born female impersonator, trapeze artist, and tightrope walker Barbette, until a fall from a trapeze prompted Poulain to pursue a more down-to-earth career as an acrobatic dancer, finding success as a travesti cabaret performer under the name of Micky.

[23] Poulain also found success as a self-taught painter,[8] handling a broad range of subjects, particularly views of old Montmartre.

[25] A reviewer described his visit: "While tasting fruit juice and listening to poets or singers, the eye falls on the paintings of the master or mistress of the house...Renée Dennsy sings Marseille songs, Wanda Basler recites avant-garde poems, Lilet London coos in several languages, and Liane Mérève recounts dreams.

I explained that my way of life is only about the pursuit of pleasure, and how much I valued my male state...Having realized his mistake, Hirschfeld allowed me to witness operations.

"One day, at two o'clock in the afternoon, breakfast time for night owls, Michel-Marie was struck by a headline: 'Professor Magnus Hirschfeld, founder of the Institute of Sexual Sciences in Berlin, is in Paris.'"

After an examination, Hirschfeld told Poulain:Nature is infinitely less disciplined than men would wish; she makes a mockery of principles and traditions.

As far as you are concerned, I think that there is more or less equality, but there is a fairly clear tendency in favor of femininity...If you wish, by a series of operations, I can make you a normal woman."

[31]Poulain seriously considered the doctor's offer, but was daunted by the tragic fate of another painter, Lili Elbe (born Einar Wegener), a Dane who whose memoirs had been published in a weekly newspaper under the suggestive title of "Vice Versa."

Michel slayed the dragon [dragoon] within him, Marie adopted the latest hairstyle, and life resumed as if waking from a bad dream.

"[20] In June 1943, she had a show at Galerie Paul Blauseur in Paris,[36] and in December 1943, she was on hand to discuss her art on display in the bar of the Cirque d'hiver.

Articles and interviews from 1946 (the year of her surgeries) to 1954 (when her "tell-all" book J'ai choisi mon sexe was published) portray Poulain as a heterosexual man (citing his marriage and child) who happened to dress exclusively as a woman.

[50][51] 1954 saw the publication, in paperback, of J'ai choisi mon sexe: Confidences du peintre Michel-Marie Poulain, essentially an autobiography by Poulain as told to the author, Claude Marais [fr], in which she shared details of her childhood, discussed her meetings with Hirschfeld, and revealed details of her operations.

[2][53] Renate Treydel in the Allgemeines Künstlerlexikon gives an overview of Poulain's oeuvre as a painter:The long-term process of finding her gender identity is reflected in her art and leads to a particularly subtle figurative painting style characterized by opposites.

Powerful, sketchy, fleeting lines are paired with a gentle, soft brushwork, and a certain severity is mitigated by figures radiating feminine grace.

Poulain paints very lively, strongly moving depictions in mostly bold colours (Au Théâtre, c. 1950), sometimes in bright colors based on Fauvist models (Marseille, le pont transbordeur, 1944).

Black contoured pictorial elements and roughly hatched backgrounds lead to comparison with paintings by Bernard Buffet (Rue Norvins, Place du Tertre, Montmartre, Paris, 1967).