JULES PASCIN MONUMENT

"I went over and sat with Pascin and two models who were sisters. Pascin was a very good painter and he was drunk; steadily, purposefully drunk and making good sense." The author of this is, of course, Ernest Hemingway, who liked Jules Pascin so much that he described him in a chapter in his Moveable Feast (1964). Pascin, born in Vidin in 1885, originally bore the name Julius Mordecai Pincas, but would later be known as the Prince of Montparnasse. His father, a Sephardi Jew, was a grain merchant. The family moved to Bucharest in 1892. Pascin studied in Vienna and by 1905 was already a part of the Parisian boheme. His new name, Pascin, was a partial anagram of Pincas. He spent most of his life in Paris, producing exquisite artwork and drinking in the Montparnasse cafés. Jules Pascin committed suicide in 1930. The Vidin house where he was born has not been preserved but a plaque dedicated to the artist now marks its location. A monument to Pascin was erected, in 2003.