| 1895 | Marcelle Cahn is born in Strasbourg. During her childhood she starts art lessons in drawing and painting. She also takes up the violin. Very young she discovers and appreciates Arnold Schoenberg work and already becomes interested in philosophy. |
| 1915-18 | While in Berlin she attends Eugen Spiro’s portrait painting classes and Lovis Corinth’s nude drawing classes at the Lewin-Funcke Schule (Studienateliers für Malerei und Plastik), Kantstrasse 159, Charlottenburg. |
| 1920 | During her first stay in Paris she frequents Arraujo’s studio where she works on drawings and paintings and where she also tries her hand at small geometrical drawings. Influenced by Cézanne’s work about whom she said : " For me he remains the most accomplished of modern painters ". |
| 1923 | In Zurich she attends philosophy classes. Back to Paris for two months she enters the Ranson Academy where Vuillard teaches, then she goes to The Modern Academy where Othon Friesz teaches. |
| 1925 | She frequents the Academy of " La Grande Chaumière " : nudes, still lifes, drawings, cubist and purist paintings. She meets Leonce Rosenberg a gallery owner who introduces her to Fernand Léger of the Modern Academy where she starts working first with Fernand Léger himself and then with Amédée Ozenfant. |
| 1929 | She is invited by Michel Seuphor to join the group " Cercle et Carré " ( Circle and Square). She exhibits her work and becomes acquainted with Hans Arp, Sophie Taeuber-Arp, Mondrian, Kandinsky, Vantongerloo, Gorin. |
| 1930-39 | She retreats from public artistic life. She draws and paints in Strasbourg meanwhile going to Paris for short stays. |
| 1939-45 | Accompanied by her mother she retreats first to Blois then to Toulouse where she frequents local painters and takes philosophy classes ; she attends lectures about Christian Faith and Ecumenism delivered by Abbey Breuil and Father Nicolas. Her mother dies on 19 December 1945 in Toulouse. Marcelle Cahn is deeply upset by the loss. |
| 1947-81 | She renews her ties with Paris and resumes her old friendships. She keeps on creating and experimenting with new techniques motivated by a discreet, rich inner life. Around 1952 she creates linear geometrical drawings and collages. 1953 is the year when her first in-relief and linear works appear. The year 1957 sees her first collages on photos and around 1960 she starts creating what is known as " tableaux-spheres " and " spacial mobiles ". |
| 1981 | Marcelle Cahn dies at the age of 86 in Neuilly-sur-Seine. |
From the biography published in the Gallery Lahumière Catalog, Paris, 1997. Some additions by Elsie Bohr
