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Gen Paul
was born on July 2, 1895 in Montmartre, Paris. In 1911, he becomes an
apprentice upholsterer and takes night classes in drawing after his work.
Injured during the First World War, he has his right leg amputated, thus
demobilized, in 1916. He returns to Paris decorated under the Légion dâHonneur. Unable to
return to his work, he paints his first painting, Le Moulin de la Galette. During this period, Gen Paul becomes
friends with Juan Gris, Vlaminck, Derain, and above all with Maurice Utrillo.
Around 1923 he discovers the circus and paints his first clown portraits, a
subject he will hold close all his life, just as the musicians he meets will
remain a principle source of inspiration. A few years later give rise to a
gestural painting with dynamic brushstrokes that announces the artistâs second
period. 1925 marks the year of his voyage to Spain, where he seeks out museums
and expositions, and is forever influenced by Velasquez, Le Greco, and above
all Goya. In 1932 Gen
Paul meets Louis-Ferdinand Céline, who came to know an enormous success with
his first novel, Journey to the End of
the Night. Céline quickly becomes one of his closest friends that he will
value particularly for his mind and talent. In 1942, Gen Paul illustrates
Célineâs Journey to the End of the Night and
Death on Credit. At the start of the
1950s, he meets Django Reinardt and Sydney Bechet, who very quickly become his
friends, and for him one of the great encounters of his life. In 1964 he
falls victim to a constitution that no longer permitted him to paint with oils,
at which point he takes to bed and works from his bed. He devotes himself to
the production of drawings and gouaches that constitutes the last great phase
of his expressionism of movement. On April 30, 1975, Gen Paul dies of stomach
cancer. |