Blek le Rat

Blek le Rat (Xavier Prou) is widely credited as the father of stencil graffiti. He began spraying small rats on the walls of Paris in 1981 — the rat, he said, being the only free animal in the city — and went on to make life-size stencilled figures of homeless people, musicians and his own alter egos.

Artists from Banksy onwards have acknowledged the debt. Blek still works internationally, and his limited editions, often issued with certificates of authenticity, remain a cornerstone of any serious street-art collection.