BIOGRAPHY: Marie-Noëlle Goffin

Marie-Noëlle Goffin was born on 11 December 1935. Even as a little girl, she knew she wanted to become a designer, and she couldn't wait for her normal school years to be over so she could go to art school.

When she was 19, she entered the Ecole des Beaux Arts in Rouen, where she stayed for four years. She decided to specialise further in engraving and sculpting and for this moved to Paris in 1959. There, she received her engraving diploma in 1962 and a scholarship to study further at the School of Fine Arts in Amsterdam (1963-1964). Furthermore, she was chosen by the Wicard organisation to hone her talent even further in their villa in Rome.

Back in France, Goffin became a teacher at the Ecole des Beaux Arts in Lille, where she remained for 26 years. It is not until 1976 that she finally moved into the realms of stamp engraving. Her first engraved stamp appeared in 1977. It is a value from the annual Tourism series, depicting the church at Le Dorat in Haute-Vienne. Since then, Goffin has engraved dozens of stamps for France and her territories.

But sculpting was her first love and this remained a force in her life, while reconstructing the old castle she lived in. In fact, the money Goffin earned by engraving the 1989 revolution set was used by her to repair the destruction made by those very same revolutionaries! How’s that for history coming full circle!

In 1993, Goffin won the Grand Prix de l’Art Philatélique for her Ducks set. She repeated this feat in 1995 with her set depicting figures from the Provence. That later set also won her the Ceres prize.

These rank among her favourites, especially the 4f value from the Ducks set, depicting the common shelduck. But in a 2003 interview she said that her Viollet-le-Duc stamp, issued in 1980 as part of the Red Cross charity set was her favourite of them all, because she likes doing portaits and she enjoyed trying to bring across his incredible intensity.

In that same interview, Goffin stated she regrets the fact that stamps are always classed in two categories: engraved ones and ‘the others’. According to her, they are both valid ways to produce stamps and should happily live together rather than being pitched against each other. She also stated that designing her own stamps is an absolute must as she values the research period it involves which will result in a better work rather than just being an engraver of an image.

For some time (at least from 2010-2014), Goffin was Vice-President of the Académie Mondiale de Philatélie. Goffin is also a member of the Académie Européenne de Philatélie and she is a member of the Art du Timbre Gravé organisation, for which she produced a special engraving in 2014.

Goffin’s 2011 stamp depicting Moulins attracted much press coverage in France. When asked, Goffin said she was always nervous when her stamps were printed, wondering how they would turn out, especially with regard to the chosen colours. But in this case the printers understood exactly which colour shades she was looking for. The stamp was printed in six colours, which necessitated the engraving of two dies: one for the background and one for the actual image.

On 14 August 2015 an exposition was held where Goffin lives which showcased her engravings.

You will find Marie-Noëlle Goffin's database HERE.