Domergue was born in Bordeaux and studied at the École nationale supérieure des Beaux-Arts. In 1911, he was a winner of the Prix de Rome.[2] From the 1920s onward he concentrated on portraits, and claimed to be "the inventor of the pin-up".[citation needed] He also designed clothes for the couturier Paul Poiret. From 1955 until 1962 he was the curator of the Musée Jacquemart-André, organising exhibitions of the works of Van Gogh, Toulouse-Lautrec, Goya and others. Domergue was appointed a Chevalier of the Légion d'honneur. He died 16 November 1962 on a Paris sidewalk.[2]