Born in Le Puy, France, Maurin was an innovative and eccentric artist who numbered Degas and Toulouse-Lautrec among his acquaintances. In 1875 he won the Prix Crozatier, which enabled him to study at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts in Paris under Jules Lefebvre, and also at the Académie Julian, where he later taught. He exhibited at the Salon des Artistes Français, becoming a member in 1883. Maurin played an important role in the revival of artistic wood engraving in the 1890s, and in 1891 he patented a new technique of color printing.