La Fresnaye was born in Le Mans where his father, an officer in the French army, was temporarily stationed.

[1] From 1908 he studied at the Académie Ranson under Maurice Denis and Paul Sérusier, whose joint influence is evident in early works such as Woman with Chrysanthemums, 1909.

In 1909, Fresnaye travelled to Munich, where he encountered the German Expressionists, and then, in 1911, to northern Italy where he began to introduce more cuboid and abstract elements into his own painting.

[2] From 1912 to 1914 La Fresnaye was a member of the Section d'Or group of artists, and his work demonstrates an individual response to cubism.

La Fresnaye enlisted in the French army in World War I but contracted tuberculosis and was discharged in 1918.