Married and the father of two daughters, Fleury Joseph Crépin worked as a hardware merchant, plumber and zinc worker, installer and repairer of pumps, as well as a dowser. In 1931, an accountant from the Courrières mines introduced him to the Spiritualist circle of Douai, of which he became a member. There, Crépin admired the Spiritualist works of Augustin Lesage and Victor Simon. The following year, he discovered his gift as a healer, claiming to treat patients at a distance through telepathy. He welcomed many sick people into his home and treated them free of charge. In a letter to André Breton, he stated that he “healed through the laying on of hands” and received “up to forty people a day.”
In 1938, while copying a musical score, Crépin created his first graphic improvisation when his hand seemed to stop obeying him. Inspired by his guardian angels, he produced, over the course of nine years, three hundred and forty-five paintings—oil on canvas works painted from drawn sketches, then transposed and enlarged using a compass, a ruler, and a measuring stick, always in solitude. Hypnotically symmetrical and of an almost mechanical perfection, they appear as architectural compositions made of perfectly calibrated pearled droplets, executed according to a technique that has remained secret.
The year 1939 marked a paroxysmal moment for Crépin, as voices announced to him: “When you have painted 300 paintings, on that day the war will end. After the war, you will create 45 marvelous paintings and the world will be pacified.” Two paintings remained unfinished, and lasting peace on Earth was never achieved.