Paul Colin was one of the most influential graphic artists of twentieth-century France, celebrated above all for his dynamic art deco posters, theatrical designs and portraits. During a career spanning more than six decades, he transformed the visual language of advertising and performance, producing well over 1,400 posters – some sources put the figure closer to 2,000 – as well as stage sets, costumes, book illustrations and paintings. His work captured the glamour, energy and cosmopolitan spirit of interwar Paris, and defined the modern poster as an artistic medium.

Colin grew up in Nancy in eastern France, one of the principal centres of the French art nouveau movement. The artistic atmosphere of the city, together with the influence of teachers such as Eugène Vallin and Victor Prouvé at the École des Beaux-Arts, gave Colin a grounding in both architecture and the decorative arts. As a teenager he apprenticed in a printing workshop, gaining a practical understanding of lithography that would later become central to his work. Before the first world war he collaborated with the young artist Jean Lurçat on the short-lived satirical review La Vache Enragée (The Angry Cow).

During the war Colin served in the army with distinction, and was awarded the Croix de Guerre for bravery. After his demobilisation he settled permanently in Paris, where he began producing illustrations for magazines and gradually established himself within theatrical circles. His decisive breakthrough came in 1925 when he was commissioned to design the poster for La revue nègre (The Black Review) at the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées. The striking image, rendered in bold silhouettes and vivid colours, became one of the defining posters of the jazz age, and simultaneously launched both Colin’s career and that of the young American performer Josephine Baker.

Baker became Colin’s muse, and for a time also his lover. Although their romantic relationship was relatively brief, they remained close friends and professional collaborators for many years. Colin designed numerous posters for Baker's performances, created stage sets and costumes for her productions, and illustrated her memoirs. His celebrated portfolio Le tumulte noir (Black Uproar, 1927), a series of lithographs inspired by black performers and jazz culture in Paris, remains one of the landmarks of art deco printmaking.

Throughout the 1930s and 1940s Colin became France’s leading poster designer. His commissions ranged from theatre productions and films to exhibitions, transport, luxury goods and public information campaigns. His style evolved beyond pure art deco, incorporating influences from cubism and modern graphic design while remaining immediately recognisable for its bold composition, expressive line and sophisticated use of colour. Equally accomplished as a portraitist, he produced drawings and paintings of many of the leading cultural figures of his day.

In 1930 Colin founded the École Paul Colin, a school devoted to commercial and graphic art, which he directed for more than forty years. Through his teaching he profoundly influenced a new generation of French designers, helping to elevate poster design from commercial craft to a respected artistic discipline. After the second world war he increasingly devoted himself to painting and sculpture, although he continued to accept selected graphic commissions.

Compared with his celebrated professional life, Colin remained relatively private in his domestic affairs. Beyond his well-documented relationship with Josephine Baker, little is known about his intimate personal life, and he rarely placed family matters before the public. Friends and colleagues described him as energetic, sociable and deeply committed to the theatre and artistic community that surrounded him, and he remained active well into old age, continuing to paint and draw, and advise and inspire younger artists.

Similar artists

Suzanne Ballivet – French lithographer of soft, tonal literary erotic editions.
Édouard Chimot – French illustrator of soft pastel-toned lithography.
Tamara de Lempicka – Polish-French art deco painter of sapphic subjects and portraits.
Louise Hervieu – French illustrator whose chiaroscuro crayon technique matches Colin's.
Mariette Lydis – Austrian-French illustrator specialising in tender, refined sapphic subjects.
Suzanne Valadon – French painter of intimate, tonal figures and interiors.