Born in the French speaking Switzerland, Crotti studied art in Paris, despite his father’s wishes. He experimented with Cubism and Orphism in a fragile social context following WWI. On a visit to his brother in US, he decided to settle in New York. Here he met Francis Picabia and Marcel Duchamp, who became close friends. He got married with Suzanne Duchamp, and created Portrait of Marcel Duchamp, made to measure. In 1920 Crotti created his masterpiece Portrait of Thomas Edison.