"A Vase of Flowers"
Eugene Paul aka Gen Paul (French, 1895-1975)
Oil crayon on paper
20 1/2 x 14 (28 x 21 1/2 frame) inches


"Gen Paul is undoubtedly the greatest representative, and perhaps the only, expressionist of the French tradition".  - Gazette Drouot, 1995

Eugene Paul, known as Gen Paul, was born in 1895 and raised in the bohemian atmosphere of Montmartre in Paris. In his life he came to know a great many of the artists, from the anonymous to the world famous, who established themselves in the neighborhood. A self-taught artist, Gen Paul began expressing himself in drawings and paintings as a child; his earliest works show a remarkable talent. He was apprenticed to a wallpaper hanger until his life was interrupted by war. He was wounded twice in World War One, and the second time he lost one of his legs. During his recovery, he turned to painting, which became his passion and his livelihood for almost 60 years.

In Paris, Gen Paul exhibited at the Salon d'Automne and the Salon des Indépendants beginning in 1920. In 1928 he exhibited fifty paintings at Galerie Bing with Picasso, Rouault, and Soutine. He participated in collective exhibitions in London and Anvers. In 1937 he painted a large fresco for the Pavillon de Vins de France at l'Exposition Internationale de Paris. A retrospective was held at Galerie Drouant-David in 1952, and his works were shown several times at Galerie Ferrero in Geneva, Switzerland.

From the late teens until about 1930, Gen Paul produced a large number of exceptionally strong, vibrant expressionist paintings. His work from this period is particularly interesting when compared to that of Chaim Soutine. While their techniques are clearly similar, Soutine's paintings seem dark, pessimistic, and distorted (by no means a flaw), while Gen Paul's are filled with a vital, positive energy and emotionalism. The work of Willem de Kooning also has many similarities to that of Gen Paul, though Gen Paul came 30 years before de Kooning and the other "action painters" of the 1950's.

Gen Paul began the 1930s with a serious illness, and as he recovered his paintings reflected his growing interest in rhythmic expression. He also began employing calligraphic forms. After World War Two, Gen Paul returned to the expressionist motifs of his earlier period, which he reproduced in great quantities.

Gen Paul traveled extensively, including visits to the United States. He painted subjects he knew and loved such as jazz and classical musicians, portraits, sports, and many scenes of Montmartre and other familiar environs.
Gen Paul, who painted well into the 1960s, worked without promoters, agents, or regular gallery representation. When he died, there were no paintings left in his estate because everything had already been sold. Perhaps because of his disdain for the art establishment, Gen Paul's work has never approached the price levels of many of his famous peers.

Many of Gen Paul's greatest works from the 1920s have remained in private collections. In preparation is A Catalog Raisonné of Gen Paul's paintings, which were completed before 1930.

Retrospective exhibitions of Gen Paul's work were held at the Musée de Montmartre in 1986, at Museum Les Cordeliers for the hundred-year anniversary of his birth in 1995, and Zurich, Switzerland in 1998.

He is represented in museums in Berne, and Geneva, Switzerland, and the Musée National d'Art Moderne in Paris. Musée de Montmartre, Paris, etc.

Reference Source: askART; Papillon Gallery