Expressionist painter Jules Pascin (1885-1930) was born Julius Pincas in
Bulgaria to a family of wealthy grain merchants. Pascin changed his
name once he began to pursue a career as an artist in 1904, and in 1905,
he moved to the Montparnasse neighborhood of Paris. He developed
his own fluid, expressive style rather than identifying with any specific
artistic movement, and is now best known for his renditions of languid,
erotic nudes. At the outset of World War I in 1914, he moved to the
United States where he remained throughout the war, returning to Paris
in 1920 and becoming a well known character in the artistic community,
both for his innovative works and for his raucous parties.
Throughout his adult life he struggled with depression and alcoholism and
divided his devotion between two women; his long-term companion and
wife, the artist Hermine David, and his mistress, Lucy Vidil Krohg, a model
from the Matisse Academy. In 1930, after gaining a significant following
making paintings of what were called “pearly” nudes, subjects which he
came to dislike but which brought him financial stability, he fell into deeper
depression. He slit his wrists, leaving a note in blood on his studio door
saying, “Goodbye Lucy,” to his mistress, and then hung himself.
The twelve works by Pascin in the Armory Show were all sent by the
artist himself and consisted of drawings, etchings and paintings, five of
which were purchased by patron and AAPS member, John Quinn. One
of the drawings purchased by Quinn,
The Visit
, depicts a gentleman on a
couch in a brothel surrounded by voluptuous prostitutes and is currently
in the collection of the Museum of Modern Art, New York.
