Thierry Poncelet was born in 1946 in Brussels, and studied Fine Arts at the St. Luc Academy. Thereafter he joined Max Massot's workshop to learn the art of painting in a traditional way and restoring fine paintings.  After establishing himself as a renowned restorer he also began to deal fine arts. As he began to deal with fine arts and restoring, he was inspired to develop a style to replace the head of a portrait he was working on, by his own dog's. The result was striking, and only wanted to keep it as a sarcastic painting of his own token. However, the enthusiasm of friends and colleagues for this strange restoration was immediate and since then many other Aristochiens were born from forgotten family portraits.