Like many other bow makers of his time, Louis Morizot's career grew from humble working-class origins in the late 19th century. He was born on 22 March 1874 in Darney, a town in the Vosges mountains of France. The son of an ironworker, Louis Morizot père was the second bow maker in his family; the first was his grandfather Guillaume Maline (1792-1859). However, Louis Morizot might also have been encouraged to take up the profession by his father-in-law, Charles Claude Bourbon (1846-1914), a carpenter who also built violins and may even have arranged Louis Morizot’s first business contacts.
The young Louis Morizot learned his art in the atelier of Eugène Cuniot-Hury (1861-1912) and went on to prove his talent under Charles Nicolas Bazin (1847-1915), who at the time was the most influential master in Mirecourt. However, the most important influence on Louis Morizot’s work came from the great Eugène Sartory (1871-1946), for whom he worked from around 1914 until 1919 when he opened his own atelier at no. 5 Rue Saint Georges. Starting in 1920, this is where he trained five of his six sons in bow making; none of them ever left the family’s atelier to work elsewhere. Their close family partnership was the foundation for the major success of "Louis Morizot et ses Fils", and the company soon provided bows to all violin makers in Mirecourt and many renowned ateliers throughout France. Several awards at a major exhibition of handicrafts in Paris attested to the good reputation of the atelier, which had long since attained the same standard as Bazin’s workshop.
Louis Joseph Morizot and his sons are among the most important French bow makers of the twentieth century. Louis Joseph Morizot, called Morizot père and his sons, Morizot frères, took up the mantle of the modern classic Eugène Sartory and established one of the most successful ateliers in their hometown of Mirecourt.
