Study For Rustic Games, Pencil, Charcoal And Pastel By Armand Paulis, Circa 1920

Originally from Antwerp, Armand Paulis spent most of his life in Brussels. After attending evening classes at the Academy of Saint-Josse-Ten-Noode, he entered the Brussels Academy of Fine Arts in 1904, where he successively studied with Herman Richir, a popular portraitist of the time, Léon Rotthier, Guillaume Van Strydonck, and especially with the Symbolist artist Jean Delville. Life and Death, a graphite and charcoal drawing with red chalk and white chalk highlights, for which the Academy jury, chaired by Fernand Khnopff, awarded Paulis first prize for composition in 1907, is undoubtedly a testament to the Symbolist influence. Subsequently, his encounter with Paul Bonduelle, a renowned architect whose sister he married, would set a decisive course for his career. Indeed, from 1910, he designed, in collaboration with Bonduelle and other architects such as Eugène Dhuicque or Fernand Petit, projects for stained glass windows, interior decorations, and even ironwork, all in an art deco style. Although Paulis worked extensively in the decoration of buildings, he never abandoned drawing or painting (he was also a drawing professor at the Etterbeek School of Arts and Crafts from 1920). The drawing is signed under the hands of the characters and titled at the bottom: Study for rustic games. Study on chamois paper, pencil, charcoal, white chalk, pastel.