Born in Lausanne in 1943, the graphic artist and draughtswoman Marianne Décosterd studied from 1959 to 1963 at her hometown’s École cantonale des Beaux-Arts, where she was a pupil of Albert-Edgar Yersin, before studying at the Akademie der Bildenden Künste in Munich from 1962 to 1965. Together with Yersin and other artists who were passionate about printmaking, including Pietro Sarto, she co-founded the group L'Épreuve, with whom she participated in numerous exhibitions. After the founding of the Atelier de Saint-Prex in 1971, she became one of its most active members, collaborating regularly with Sarto and Edmond Quinche. The portraits she made during this period bear witness to the camaraderie of the Atelier. From the outset, Décosterd's love of experimentation distinguished her work as a printmaker. She implemented a great variety of techniques, including burin, intaglio, aquatint, etching and lithography, and she often combined these with one another while simultaneously printing in different colors and on different types of paper. Her etchings, created with a characteristic speed and ease, often focus on a precise element of her subject, revealing an intense and sensitive eye. She won numerous prizes and three federal art scholarships, and her work has been exhibited at the Entracte Gallery (Lausanne), the Arts et Lettres Gallery (Vevey) and the Château d'Avenches Gallery. Her extant oeuvre, almost all of which is kept at the Fondation William Cuendet & Atelier in Saint-Prex, consists mainly of portraits (especially of her husband, the engraver Pierre Schopfer) and self-portraits, but also includes landscapes—especially those of Brittany, where the artist often stayed. She also illustrated a number of books. In November 2017, a year before the artist's death, the Pavillon de l'Estampe at the Musée Jenisch Vevey was inaugurated with an exhibition of works by Décosterd, Ilse Lierhammer, and Susan Litsios.