Christiane Chardon (1947), the eldest of four children, was born in Paris, France. She was brought up by her grandparents until the age of six, then by her parents, who settled in Blois in 1960, where they ran a small business. Self-taught, she has been drawing and painting since the age of fourteen. One of her specialities was drawing figures in ballpoint pen on telephone tickets used in telephone exchanges in the 1960s, when she worked as an operator at the post office. Some of her works were acquired by Jean Dubuffet in 1967 for his Collection Annexe, which later became the Collection Neuve Invention. Encouraged by this recognition, she began to work in larger formats, the ballpoint pen giving way to coloured pencils, then gouache and oil paint, at which point she decided to devote herself entirely to painting. Chardon has rarely exhibited her works since, although they have been displayed on several occasions in France. She currently lives in the Vendée region, where she continued to develop her style until the early 2010s.