O/C, SLR, 20 1/4 x 26", Paul Maas (Laken, August 10, 1890 - Ixelles, September 12, 1962) was a Belgian expressionist painter and draftsman.Maas was the only child of Achille Maas, a businessman from the bourgeoisie of Moerbeke and Louise Tedesco, a Walloon from a family of magistrates. Paul Maas was destined to succeed his father in the perfumery business. He studied at the Atheneum in Brussels where he met Albert Guislain. In 1908 he spends six months in Berlin to learn German. Back in Brussels, he takes several courses in sociology and law at the Université libre de Bruxelles (ULB). He founded a literary magazine with some fellow students in which Maas will publish some poems. However, he gave up his studies after two years and, at the insistence of his father, started an internship in the luxury perfumery industry in Paris. During this internship he spends a lot of time in the Louvre. He was wounded during the First World War and was evacuated to London, where his parents and his fiancé, a young Russian of Jewish origin, Frieda Landeau, joined him. Paul Maas then moves with his family to Amsterdam where he meets Rik Wouters, who encourages him to pursue his vocation as a painter. He then decided to devote himself entirely to painting. In 1918 he became acquainted with the Brussels painter Henri-François Ramah. Between 1922 and 1933 he was close to the group of painters led by Valerius De Saedeleer in Etikhove. In 1935 his style became aggressive and tormented. He sketches human figures that barely light up from the background with a few lines. His subjects are crowds, the beach, nudes, ... which he always gives shape to with expressive power. His work is close to Oskar Kokoschka and Chaim Soutine. In 1952 he takes part in the Salon des Expressionnistes. In 1960 he receives the Guggenheim Prize for Belgium. In 1961 he becomes a member of the Royal Academy of Belgium.

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20.25 x 26 in