MADARIAGA, THE CENTAUR In 1870 Marcelo Desnoyers was nineteen years old.

He was born in the suburbs of Paris, an only child; his father, interested in little building speculations, maintained his family in modest comfort.

The mason wished to make an architect of his son, and Marcelo was in the midst of his preparatory studies when his father suddenly died, leaving his affairs greatly involved.

In a few months, he and his mother descended the slopes of ruin, and were obliged to give up their snug, middle-class quarters and live like laborers.
When the fourteen-year-old boy had to choose a trade, he learned wood carving.

This craft was an art related to the tastes awakened in Marcelo by his abandoned studies.