Marcel Defize was a Belgian painter born in Liège. He studied at the Académie des Beaux-Arts in Liège and became associated with Surrealism in the mid-1920s, alongside artists such as Auguste Mambour and Paul Renotte. He subsequently travelled to Paris with his companion, the painter Émilie Delbrouck, where they frequented the Surrealist circle.
In 1929, Defize and Delbrouck exhibited together in Paris in a show prefaced by André Breton. The exhibition was held at the Galerie Van Leer, which was active until 1934 and showed Max Ernst, Francis Picabia, Roland Penrose, Douanier Rousseau, Giorgio De Chirico, Joan Miró, and Man Ray among others. This exhibition placed him within the international network surrounding the movement at a time when Belgian Surrealism was taking shape. Defize later became increasingly interested in the relationship between classical art, humanism and modern society.
In 1934, he founded the group L’Atelier in Liège with Émilie Delbrouck, Fanny Germeau and Ernest Stroobants. Based in a communal studio on rue des Minimes, the group sought to develop a new form of realism informed by Renaissance painting, particularly the work of Paolo Uccello and Piero della Francesca. Defize advocated rigorous drawing and a shared intellectual approach to artistic practice. The group remained active until 1939.
During the Second World War, Defize taught drawing at the Académie des Beaux-Arts in Liège and participated in the Resistance. He remained in Liège until his death on 30 December 1978. In 1987, the Province of Liège organised a retrospective devoted to his work.