The French painter Nicolas de Staël (1914-1955) was a major
painter of the School of Paris. His work is characterized by a
simplification of forms and the application of paint in thick
slabs. Nicolas de Staël was born on Jan. 5, 1914, in St.
Petersburg, the son of a wealthy baron. Nicolas's mother
encouraged him to draw and paint at a very early age. In 1919
the Russian Revolution forced the family into exile in Poland.
Within 2 years his parents were dead, and Nicolas was sent to
Brussels to study humanities. In 1932 he entered the Royal
Academy of Art there. During the 1930s Staël embarked on a
series of travels to see as many kinds of art as possible. In
the Netherlands he was particularly impressed by the works of
Rembrandt and Jan Vermeer, and in Paris he was very moved by the
paintings of Paul Cézanne, Henri Matisse, and Georges Braque. He
traveled in Spain, Italy, Morocco, and Algeria and then settled
in Paris in 1938. When World War II broke out, Staël joined the
French Foreign Legion and fought in Tu