Emile Antoine Coulon 1868-1937

Very little is known about this Belgian painter, born after 1868 and apparently deceased before 1937, except that he was a pupil of Félicien Rops. He is listed at the head of the 1889 edition of Parallèlement by Verlaine, which he illustrated for the publisher Léon Vannier in Paris. A unique edition from 1893 included an original watercolor and 24 pen-and-watercolor compositions, later found in the erotic library of Gerard Nordmann, dispersed by Christie’s in December 2006.

Although his original compositions are not erotic, they reveal a profound and subtle style that places him among the best artists of the Belgian “Decadent” generation.