Lucien Potronat was born in Lyons France in 1889. He studied art in Lyons, and later moved to Paris where he began exhibiting. By the end of World War I he exhibited on a regular basis at the Paris Salon.
From the late 1930’s he lived and worked on the French Riviera. He was fascinated by the light and warmth of the Riviera and dominated the subject matter of his paintings. His subject matter was usually the landscape of the coastline around him and his paintings regularly depicted the whitewashed villas with trailing bougainvillea and the distinctive blue of the Mediterranean Sea rising to meet azure skies.