André Jacquemin was born in Epinal on the 3rd of September 1904, second of a family of three children : His brother Paul died of meningitis at the age of 16 and his sister Marguerite was 4 years younger than him. His parents had a catering business ("Salon des familles, traiteur") for weddings, communions and other family events.
The parties were always very colourful with dressed up guests, crawfish cocktails, magnificent pikes, roast haunch of venison, wedding cakes. They aroused his sharp sense of observation and his fascination with fresh fruit and nature which later took a major part in his work.

At the age of six, he joined the school in Saint-Goery and became very popular for his drawings. In the school yard, you could see pupils trading sweets for one of the cigar boxes decorated by Jacquemin. Victim of his own success, stuffed with candies, little André suffered acute enteritis. His health declining and the fact that he was completely exhausted worried everybody until he was given a chick one day. He rapidly went back on track. The child had recovered. The chick, baptised "Vigilant" became a gorgeous rooster and sadly ended its life as a Coq au Vin dish.

Every summer during WWII,.André spent his holidays on his uncle's farm at Dombrot-sur-Vair. He got to know the hard but enjoyable countryside life : cooking in the fire place, making bread, harvests. He never forgot those sensations which fulfilled his whole life. One day of October, when helping his uncle priest move, a piece of wood went through his leg. He was badly injured. But this painful accident was providential since it happened to be the reason why he decided to become an artist. For one and a half month in bed, André Jacquemin never stopped drawing. One day, a friend of the family, Mr Mougenot, an Architect working for the county, saw a copy of an old picture and was very impressed by the quality of the work. He begged André's parents to let the young man go to Paris and study at the Ecole des Beaux-arts.