Nicolas de Staël

Born Nikolai Vladimirovich Stael von Holstein in Saint Petersburg in 1914, Nicolas de Staël's early life was marked by upheaval. His family, members of the Russian aristocracy, were forced to emigrate to Poland in 1919 due to the Russian Revolution. Orphaned at a young age, he moved to Brussels in 1922, where he later studied art and architecture. The 1930s saw him travel extensively across Europe, living in Paris, Morocco, and Algeria, before joining the French Foreign Legi…