Drawn to Perfection: Jean and Paul Ulen and the Slade School Legacy in Cleveland By: Christopher Bedford and Marianne Berardi Paul Veronese Ulen (July 7, 1894 – March 7, 1976), was born in a small south-central Ohio town of Frankfort and raised in Dayton In contrast with Jean’s upbringing, Paul Ulen’s was far less privileged. His father was a rail roadman who died when Paul was in his early twenties.
His mother, Eleanor Buckley, worked for years as a postmistress to supplement the family income, while Paul and his brother Harold worked odd jobs. Following his graduation from Stivers High School in Dayton, where he was awarded athletic honors in football, baseball and basketball, he played two years of professional football for the Dayton Oakwoods, one of the old professional leagues predating the inauguration of the NFL.
Here called to his son, Ian with considerable pride that he once played against Jim Thorpe of the Canton Bulldogs.
At the end of his football career, Paul worked for five years as a commercial artist with various Dayton firms, including the Dayton Daily News, and then attended the Cleveland School of Art from 1916 to 1920.
Like Jean, Paul Ulen graduated from the Cleveland School with a degree in Pictorial Art, but was on average an A student across the board. Both Jean and Paul studied primarily with Frederick Gottwald, Henry Keller and Frank Wilcox.
Both studied art history all four years with Henry Turner Bailey, the Boston-born director of the school, to who Jean wrote extensive and revealing letter from Paris and London during her 1922-23 scholarship year abroad. Jean and Paul married in December of 1921 and would remain dedicated partners for the rest of their lives. The month they were married Paul began teaching at West Technical High School on Cleveland’s west side where, atthe time, the school was becoming one of the largest high schools in Ohio.
Both Paul and Jean received scholarships to complete their art education abroad. They first went to London in 1922-23, with Paul studying at the Slade School, primarily under Henry Tonks (1862-1937). After teaching in Cleveland for four years Jean and Paul Ulen returned to complete their studies at the Slade in 1927 and 1928.
At this time they visited Paris twice, as well as parts of Italy, Belgium and Germany. Altogether, Paul Ulen taught art to Cleveland students for forty years. After her husbands death, Jean Ulen catalogued Paul’s drawings and watercolors.
Ulen’s paintings may be purchased on the internet.
