Marcellin Gilbert Desboutin, painter, printmaker and writer, was born on 26 August 1823 in Cérilly, France. His parents were Barthélémy Desboutin and Baroness Ann-Sophie de Rochefort-Dalie Farges. Desboutin attended the Collège Stanislas de Paris. In 1845 he studied with the sculptor Louis-Jules Etex at the École nationale supérieure des Beaux-Arts in Paris and later with the painter Thomas Couture.

His family was affluent so during the first part of Desboutin’s life his lifestyle was lavish. In 1854, he purchased the Villa dell'Ombrellino which overlooked Florence, Italy. He spent the next seventeen years at his villa hosting a number of artists and writers. When his family’s fortune collapsed, Desboutin left Italy in 1871 and went back to Paris. In Paris, he was forced to live well below his standards but he managed to make the best of everything. Being very sociable, Desboutin joined a group of artists and writers who met regularly at the Café Guerbois, and later at the Café de la Nouvelle Athènes. Desboutin was a close friend of the painter, Degas, and posed for the painting L'Absinthe of 1876.

Desboutin first exhibited at the Salon de Paris in 1878 and won prizes at the Salons of 1878 and 1889. He also exhibited in the second Impressionist exhibition in 1876. Due to his son’s poor health, Desboutin left Paris 1880 and settled in Nice for eight years. Upon his returned to Paris he experienced his most productive as an artist. In 1896, he returned to Nice and lived there for the rest of his life.

Desboutin was foremost a printmaker. He worked in drypoint and made a reputation for executing portraits of the most famous of his contemporaries. He was a founding member of the Société Nationale des Beaux-Arts in 1890 and a member of the Société de Aquafortistes.

Desboutin was decorated with the Legion of Honor in 1895.

Marcellin Gilbert Desboutin died on 18 February 1902 in Nice, France.