"The genesis of this rebirth [is] due to the meeting of another Yonnais, René Robin, director of the art gallery that bears his name"; explains journalist Bertrand Illegems.

[2]“Without his father-in-law, the irreplaceable René Robin, always present in his works, who trained and supported so many painters (Albert Deman, Henry Simon, Paul Dauce, Joël Dabin, Roger Ducrot ...), Raphaël Toussaint would not have become what he is today, a magician of beauty in the service of truth”, writes journalist Hervé Louboutin.

[3]Called to do his military service, it was in 1957 that he embarked in civilian clothes on the Sidi Bel Abbès II bound for Oran (Algeria) where he disembarked on 13 July.

His career as a singer halted, he decided to devote himself entirely to painting, helped by his father-in-law, René Robin, and he changed his name to become Raphaël Toussaint.

“Be congratulated and thanked, your work is beneficial, it carries within it the true values of life, the quiet and firm certainty that happiness is in simplicity, and not in money which is a lure.

To build a work such as yours, in our times of anguish and iron, dear Raphaël Toussaint, is to bring us closer to the angels ... ” declares Édouard Georges Mac-Avoy, the president of Salon d'Automne, in 1990.

[9] The following year, at the Salon de la Nationale des Beaux Arts, he was appointed Associate by President François Baboulet.

This painting was stolen from the Grand Palais in Paris during the Salon de la Nationale des Beaux Arts and never found.

[10] To pay tribute to his Mentor René Robin, whom he includes in all his paintings, Raphaël Toussaint publishes a wax seal which is affixed to the back of each of his works as a second signature.