TOFFART was born into a family from the Artesian nobility made up of royal notaries and senior officers of the King ennobled under Louis XIV sitting in the provincial parliament of Artois located in Arras. After the trauma of the Revolution, the TOFFART family devoted itself to medicine throughout the nineteenth century, until the eve of the Great War, not without perpetuating its territorial tradition through multiple mandates as mayors of Auchel, Febvin-Palfart and Frelinghien. His presence in Paris dates from the mid-1880s. The impetus given by the Industrial Revolution directed him towards the metallurgical industry, more particularly towards industrial electroplating. Charles III directed the company founded by Charles Douillon from 1908 to 1934. awarded many times at the Universal Exhibitions of the century. Subsequently, from 1935 to 1988, the company of his grandfather, Robert 1st, specialized in bronze frames and in the restoration of light fixtures. He will diversify his activity by moving towards woodworking. This is how he took over one of the most prestigious Parisian workshops located on rue Vauquelin, "l'Ebénisterie d'Art", founded in 1946 by two journeymen cabinetmakers who were students of RULHMANN, Maurice PREZ and Joseph EDOUARD. It is in this universe mixing art and craftsmanship that TOFFART entered in 1978 on a competitive examination in the wood section at the Lycée Technique Privé Saint-Nicolas. After obtaining his carpenter's CAP, he passed the entrance exam for the Technical Agents section of the Ecole BOULLE.  

 

 

In parallel with his technical studies, he cultivated a natural predisposition for drawing. They earned him several first prizes at the end of the year at the Saint-Nicolas school. With this aptitude for artistic and technical drawing, his teachers advised him to go into the layout section at the Ecole Boulle. In this establishment of national and international reputation, he will have the teachings of the sculptor and Grand Prix de Rome Michel BADUEL. His first works date from 1985 and are drawn portraits. His "pencil stroke" earned him the interest of his professional environment and his first commissions. While he was learning oil painting, in 1991, he took a break from university studies which would be crowned by a degree in History obtained at the University of Paris XII in 1994.

 

From that date on, the resumption of his creative activity was marked by a conceptual and technical evolution that alternated the classic themes of anthropomorphic representation through painting and sculpture, and, in parallel, abstractive research. For more details, see the "Concept" page.