Painter and printmaker Roger-Maurice Grillon was born in Poitiers, France on September 28, 1881, the son of painter and lithographer Albert-Fulgence Grillon. He studied with his father before enrolling in the School of Fine Arts of Poitiers. He was then granted a scholarship by the city of Poitiers to study in the studio of Fernand Cormon at the School of Fine Arts in Paris in 1900. However, Grillon soon abandoned formal academic education, preferring to attend workshops and academies where education was more independent. In these places he met Matisse, Marquet, Georges Linaret (1878-1905), Georges Gublin (1873-1909), etc.

In 1939, Raymond Escholier organized a retrospective of Grillon's work at the Petit Palais in Paris, exhibiting paintings, drawings and his engravings. Grillon illustrated several books, such as Venus and Adonis Shakespeare (1921, woodcut), Perpignan Delteil Joseph (1927, etchings). He  left Paris to settle first at Céret, then Saint Paul de Vence, then in Prades (from 1922-1927) and finally Lagrasse in the Corbières, where he remained until his death on June 19, 1938.

In 1952, Marc Sandoz presented a major retrospective for Roger Grillon, comprised of eighty works (paintings, watercolors, drawings, illustrations). The museums of Algiers, Angers, Albi, Carcassonne, Ceret, Fontenay-le-Comte, La Rochelle, Grenoble and the National Museum of Modern Art all have works by Grillon.