Paul Citroen

Roelof Paul Citroen (15 December 1896 – 13 March 1983) was aGerman-bornDutch artist, art educator and co-founder of the New Art Academy in Amsterdam. Among his best-known works are the photo-montage Metropolis and the 1949 Dutch postage stamps.

Paul Citroen
Citroen in 1981
Born	(1896-12-15)15 December 1896 Berlin, Germany
Died	13 March 1983(1983-03-13) (aged 86) Wassenaar,Netherlands
Nationality	Dutch
Notable work	Metropolis, postage stamps
Relatives	Sanne Ledermann (niece)

Biography

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Early life

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Citroen was born and grew up in a middle-class family inBerlin to Hendrik Roelof Citroen (1865–1932), aDutch Jew from Amsterdam while his mother, Ellen Philippi (1872–1945), was from a Berlin Jewish family.^[1] His father owned a fur shop and passed away in Berlin just before the onset ofNazi Germany while his mother died due to illness at theBergen-Belsen concentration camp. His sister Ilse Citroen (died with her husband at theAuschwitz concentration camp) was the mother ofSanne Ledermann, a friend ofAnne Frank. At an early age, Citroen began drawing, provoking strong support from his parents. He soon started to experiment with photography withErwin Blumenfeld and studied art in Berlin.

As a painter, he was a Dadaist. As a visual artist in photography, he used the Bauhaus Style of physical portraits, many times with the subject peering intensely into the camera.^[2]

Metropolis (1923)

Stamps 1949

In 1919 Citroen began studying at theBauhaus, where he started taking lessons fromPaul Klee andWassily Kandinsky (part ofDer Blaue Reiter) andJohannes Itten, who became one of his biggest influences. Around this time, he startedMetropolis (1923), which became his best-known piece.Metropolis is held at the Print Room ofLeiden University Libraries. A digital version is available via Leiden's Digital Collections.^[3] Metropolis influencedFritz Lang to make his classic filmMetropolis. Between 1929 and 1935, Citroen made manyphotographs, clearly influenced by his work with Blumenfeld.

Citroen's work was included in the 1939 exhibition and saleOnze Kunst van Heden (Our Art of Today) at theRijksmuseum in Amsterdam.^[4]

Later life

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He soon started up the Nieuwe Kunstschool (New Art School) with Charles Roelofsz. It ran out of money and closed down in 1937. That year, Citroen became ascholar at theRoyal Academy of Art inThe Hague. When Citroen was warned that he was due to be arrested on 28 August 1942, he fled to Maria Helena Friedlaender (née Bruhn), a German woman, wife ofHenri Friedlaender. Shehid him with other fugitives in the attic of her house in Wassenaar,South Holland, for several months.^[5]

Among his many students areKees Bol,^[6] Madeleine Gans,^[6] Henk Hartog,^[6] and Jos Zeegers.^[6] He designed his monumental postage stamps in 1949. In 1960 he stopped teaching and started painting portraits as his main focus. He painted portraits of famous Dutch people, including a well-known portrait ofLiesbeth List in 1979.

Paul Citroen died in 1983 inWassenaar.

In 2021, two photographs by Citroen (Portrait of the dancer Estella Reed and photocollageMetropolis) were included in theNetherlands Photo Museum's permanent exhibitionGallery of Honour of Dutch Photography, consisting of 99 photographs.^[7]