Painter. Jules Eugene Pages was a prominent landscape and marine painter who spent most of his career in France where he was a well-known Impressionist painter. He also maintained close ties to his native city of San Francisco and was influential in introducing that painting style to Northern California.

Pages was born in San Francisco, CA. and raised in the artistic milieu of his father’s engraving business, working there as an apprentice. In 1888 he sailed to Paris to study at Academie Julian under Jules Lefebvre (1836-1911), Benjamin Constant (1845-1902) and Leon Francois Antoine Fleury (1804-1858). After returning to San Francisco, he worked as an illustrator for the Examiner and Call newspapers.

Upon returning to Paris in 1902, he began teaching night classes at Academie Julian and served as its director. Pages gained international recognition while in France and was made a Chevalier of the Legion of Honor in 1910. In 1915 he exhibited at the Panama Pacific International Exhibition and was a member of the International Jury of Awards.

Although he remained in France for 40 years, he returned to his native city often to visit and exhibit. At the outbreak of W.W.II, Pages returned to San Francisco and remained there for the rest of his life.

Member: Bohemian Club; International Society of Sculptors & Painters, Paris

Exhibited: Bohemian Club 1924 (solo); California Palace of the Legion of Honor, 1946, memorial.

Awards: Honorable mention Paris Salon, 1895, gold medals 1899 and 1905.

Works held: California Historical Society; San Diego Museum; Mills College, Oakland; Oakland Museum; De Young Museum; Museum of Pau, France; Museum of Toulouse, France; Luxembourg Museum, Paris, Bohemian Club.

(Source: Hughes, Edan Milton, "Artists in California: 1786-1940," San Francisco: Hughes Publishing Company, 1989.)