Jules Pascin

Born. 31.03.1885 in Widin Bulgaria
Died. 05.06.1930 in Paris

Bulgarian Painter, Expressionist

About the artist

Julius Pincas was born on 31 March 1885 in Widin, Bulgaria. His father was a Jewish businessman who had made his fortune buying and selling grain.

In 1892, the family moved to Bucharest and his father opened another grain business.  When he turned 15, Pascin worked for the family firm for a short time, preferring to spend his time at a local brothel where he made his first sketches.

At the age of 17, Pascin moved to Vienna where he would train to be an artist. A year later, he moved to Munich to study at Moritz Heymann’s academy.  During his time in Munich, he started contributing drawings to a satirical magazine called Simplicissimus.  His father was not happy with the family name being connected with these drawings, therefore, he changed his name to Pascin using an anagram of Pincas.  His contributions to the Munich daily continued until 1929.

In December 1905, Pascin moved to Paris to mix with the other great artists seeking fame and fortune. Two years later, he met Hermine Lionette Cartan David, who was also a painter, and they became lovers. He had his first solo exhibition at the Paul Cassirer Gallery in Berlin in the same year.

Pascin had a very busy social life but was still able to produce thousands of watercolors and sketches, plus drawings and caricatures that he sold to various newspapers and magazines. He also exhibited his works in commercial galleries. Between 1907–1909 he began to produce his first paintings of portraits and nudes. Wanting to be recognised as a good artist, he suffered from depression with his inability to achieve fame and success. He decided to enroll at the Académie Colarossi, painting copies after the masters in the Louvre. His first exhibition in the United States was in 1913 when some of his work was hung at the New York Armory Show.

At the beginning of WWI, Pascin relocated to London to avoid being called to serve in the Bulgarian army and left for the United States on October 3, 1914.  He became an American citizen but returned to Paris in 1920 shortly after his marriage to Hermine David. His subject material was mainly women in casual poses, nude or partly dressed. Struggling with depression and alcoholism, he committed suicide on 5 June 1930 at the age of 45.