This early oil on canvas by Paul Keene was executed during a formative period of his career spent in Paris between 1949 and 1951. Keene absorbed the lessons of European modernism and enrolled at the Académie Julian. While in Paris, he founded the cooperative Galerie Huit with Raymond Hendler, shared an apartment with Sanford Greenberg, and studied with French modernist painter Fernand Léger. Keene exhibited with Picasso and Léger at the Salon de Mai and through Whitney Fellowships directed courses at the Centre D'Art, Port-au-Prince, Haiti between 1952 and 1954.
Keene went on to teach painting and drawing at Bucks County Community College from 1968 to 1985, serving as the art department chairperson for three years. He has exhibited at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, the James A. Michener Art Museum, the Afro-American Historical and Cultural Museum, and the Philadelphia Museum of Art, all in PA.
