Claudius Denis was a Painter and engraver from Lyon, Claudius Denis spent his childhood in the workshop of his parents, silk weavers in Lyon.

He first worked for a paint dealer and then began to take drawing lessons in a studio before entering the School of Fine Arts in Lyon.
After his military service in the Alps hunters, he left Lyon for Paris where he studied at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts. Mobilized and taken prisoner during the war, he drew a lot and brought back many drawings and sketches that he engraved.

After 1920 and the birth of his daughter, he won a competition to be a drawing teacher in the schools of the City of Paris. He had a job at the School of Applied Arts, to teach “the flower” which was his specialty.