Jules Pascin - Little Red Riding Hood - Original Lithograph 1938

Jules Pascin - Little Red Riding Hood - Original Lithograph Conditions: excellent 32 x 24 cm 1938 XXe siècle, San Lazzaro Julius Pinkas, otherwise known as Jules Pascin, was born in Viddin, Bulargaria in 1885. He spent time in Vienna, Berlin, then Munich, and he was 20 when he moves to Paris in 1905. Paris is abundant with artists coming from around the world (Modigliani, Soutine, Picasso, Chagall, etc.); these last welcome him and he collaborates with them on several Parisian publications. An individualist sensitive to exterior influences, Pascin has a personality out of the ordinary, oscillating without rest between seduction and appearance, is naturally anxious, prey to permanent doubts, seemingly depressed. The allure of being frail and dark, he frequents the terraces of the Dome and the Rotunda. He draws his contemporaries, attaching himself to the human condition, passionate by the female body that he draws with all its curves. In 1914, Pascin must leave Paris because of his Bulgarian nationality, and he leaves for the United States, and sets up in New York where he takes American nationality. He travels, bringing back drawings and watercolours from Cuba, Texas, Florida, etc. He is in search of new means of expression. In 1920, Pascin returns to Paris. He applies himself with passion to his engravings, learning this art from Jean-Gabriel Daragnès. He drinks, leading his life towards dissolve, frequenting with assiduity the fenced up mansions where he covers his sketchbooks with voluptuous drawings, sometimes erotic. The world of Pascin is not far from Toulouse-Lautrec. His drawings, like his paintings express a great sadness, a profound distress that he manages to control less and less. In 1923, the artist adopts a manner known as ‘nacree’ (a pearl effect), utilizing pastel colors, becoming an expert in the technique of using transparent layers of paint, coming back to the theme of prostitution, an environment in which he unites completely. His characteristic at times is supple and incisive. A Bohemian, an unrepentant spender, eaten away by alcohol, exhausted, sick, depressed, puts his life to the most extreme limits possible, he commits suicide on June 2, 1930, the same day that a of an exhibition opening is dedicated to him.