Born with congenital deafness, Christian Michau was raised by his mother until the age of three, after which he was placed in an institution. He later attended a specialized school for the hearing impaired and, at seventeen, earned a vocational diploma as a house painter. However, the worsening of his psychological condition led to his first hospitalization in 1969.
Between 1970 and 1995, Michau returned to live with his mother and worked intermittently. Struggling to adapt to professional life, he was eventually admitted to the medical care home Le Lauragais in Mons, where he appears to have lived peacefully, though in great isolation and without financial independence. There, as part of a clay art therapy workshop, he created only three works: clay “book-figures.”