Raphael Drouart was born on March 25 1884 in Choisy-le-Roi, France, a suburb of Paris. He studied with Fernand Cormon at Atelier Cormon and then with Symbolist and ‘Les Nabis’ artist Maurice Denis. Drouart began engraving in 1914, shortly before the war but his career as a printmaker did not come into its own until 1918.

Drouart became proficient in all the printmaking techniques; etching, engraving, mezzotint, relief and lithography and worked as a collaborating illustrator for many authors throughout the 1920s. For examples, in 1925 he did aquatints for a livre d’ artiste Le Cantique Des Cantiques and 20 wood engravings for Rene Boyleve’s Le Meillieur Ami. In 1931 he published a portfolio of 26 of his own lithographs he did in the 1920’s. Drouart exhibited at the Salon de Paris from 1919. See: J. R. Thomé, Peintres-Graveurs Contemporains: Catalogue de l'Oeuvre Gravé de Raphaël Drouart, 1937; Thierry Lefrancois, Catalogue complet de son Oeuvre Gravé, 1990.

Raphael Drouart died in 1972 in Nogent-sur-Marne, Paris, France.