The Life and Artistic Path of Paul Albert Laurens
Born in the 6th arrondissement of Paris, France, Paul Albert Laurens was the son of the painter Jean-Paul Laurens and Madeleine Willemsens. His brother, Jean-Pierre Laurens, was also a painter. During the Franco-Prussian War of 1870, his family moved to the village of Fourquevaux in the Haute-Garonne department of southwestern France. Laurens attended school on Rue d'Assas, where he met André Gide. In 1890, he and his brother studied at the Académie Julian at 31 Rue du Dragon alongside Paul Landowski and Henri Bouchard. In 1893, Laurens traveled from Marseille to Tunis and Sousse with Gide. He married Bertha Guerin in 1900 and lived at 126 Boulevard du Montparnasse.
During the First World War, Laurens worked on camouflage within the armed forces alongside artists such as Dunoyer de Segonzac, Forain, Georges Paul Leroux, Abel Truchet, Henri Callot, Avy, and Devambez. His work served as a model for the Allied armies. Later, he served as a Professor of Drawing at the École Polytechnique between 1919 and 1934 and was appointed a member of the French Academy of Fine Arts in 1933.
Artistic Works and Exhibitions
Laurens's diverse body of work includes paintings, drawings, watercolours, lithographs, and illustrations. His notable paintings include:
His illustrations include works for Lêda ou la louange des bienheureuses ténèbres (1898), Thaïs by Anatole France (1900), La Morte amoureuse (1904), Cyrano de Bergerac (1910), and Les Caves du Vatican (1914). His exhibitions spanned various venues, including the Salon des artistes français and the Salon Champs Élysées.
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