page_title: Paul Citroen
section_title: Early life
hierarchical_section_title: Paul Citroen / Biography / Early life
caption_attribution_description: Nederlands: Zomerzegels. Terras aan zeestrand / Trekkers in korenveld / Kampeerders / Meisje bij oogst / Zeilbootjes. Ontwerp door Paul Citroen. NVPH nr 513-517
context_page_description: Roelof Paul Citroen was a German-born Dutch artist, art educator and co-founder of the New Art Academy in Amsterdam. Among his best-known works are the photo-montage Metropolis and the 1949 Dutch postage stamps.
context_section_description: Citroen was born and grew up in a middle-class family in Berlin. Both his parents were Dutch Jews. His father owned a fur shop. At an early age, Citroen began drawing, provoking strong support from his parents. He soon started to experiment with photography with Erwin Blumenfeld and studied art in Berlin.
  As a painter, he was a Dadaist.  As a visual artist in photography, he used the Bauhaus Style of physical portraits, many times with the subject peering intensely into the camera. 
  In 1919 Citroen began studying at the Bauhaus, where he started taking lessons from Paul Klee and Wassily Kandinsky (part of Der Blaue Reiter) and Johannes Itten, who became one of his biggest influences. Around this time, he started Metropolis (1923), which became his best-known piece. Citroen's Metropolis influenced Fritz Lang to make his classic film Metropolis. Between 1929 and 1935, Citroen made many photographs, clearly influenced by his work with Blumenfeld.
caption: Stamps 1949
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