Jules Pascin

Jules Mordecai Pascin (his original last name was Pincas) was born in Vidin, Bulgaria, to a Ladino-speaking family that drew its wealth from a grain business. Raised in Bucharest, to which the family relocated, Pascin received his artistic training in Vienna and Munich. Early on, he sketched portraits of seminude women in brothels. In 1905, after two years in Munich, Pascin moved to the Montparnasse neighborhood of Paris, where he became a fixture at Le Dôme Café with his new identity, Jules Pascin; he was immortalized in Ernest Hemingway’s A Moveable Feast. Pascin lived in the United States from 1914 to 1920, after which he returned to Paris; in 1930, he committed suicide. His painting style reflected a blend of Cubism and Expressionism.