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He received a complete and bourgeoise education in Paris in the district of Montparnasse. He had no wish to become an artist, too much in the family line, he decided to aim either for medicine or the
Navy. He did neither but started studying Architecture at Ecole des Beaux Arts in Paris. His master, Auguste Leprince-Ringuet, encouraged him turn to Scupture. He went to la Grande
Chaumière art school, in Antoine Bourdelles studio, and at the same time to the Arts Décoratifs school. During that period of his education he also received guidance from Auguste Rodin,
sculptor, Auguste Delaherche, ceramist, and painters like Edmond Aman-Jean or Emile-René Ménard, and André Dauchez, etcher and painter. He later practise all these disciplines.
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.In december 1913 he was called to do his military service in Rouen, and that led him to be fighting in the Marne sector as early as august 1914. The following month
he was taken prisoner and was not back before december 1918. This long prison term and the death of numbers of his friends left a deep mark on his life. It took him two years to go
back to his tools and start his career as an artist, 6 years late. He was 28 years old.
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Not much is known on that first period. He sculpted a few portraits, some of which were already quite remarkably good, though his choice was clear : he wanted to work in
architecture ! He first turned to his master «Leprince»(-Ringuet) who dispensed advice and work. He also worked for architects like Sue and Mare (Louis Sue built the Simon family house in
rue Cassini) also Huillard or Godard.
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He entered some work at the Société Nouvelle des Beaux-Artss exhibition and at the Salon dAutomne (for a short while), also at the new Salon des Tuileries recently founded by his master Antoine
Bourdelle. He showed heads and paintings (which he himself calls daubs and these paintings are soon abandoned). He also showed at the Salon des Animaliers Français where he joined his
friends Edouard-Marcel Sandoz and Georges Guyot. He remained faithful to that till the end.
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On september 17th, 1926, he married Elisabeth Derrien in Loctudy, Brittany, a village near his beloved Semaphore, his fathers house where he spent all his leisure moments. The following year their one daughter, Corinne, was born..
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Then starts a new period. He continued working as much as possible for architects, but did more portraits and widened his scope by painting animals. He showed paintings of fish in their
natural environment like his beautiful aquariums published by Armand Dayot in his books « les animaux par les meilleurs animaliers » (animals by the best animal painters) in 1930, or monkeys or felines.
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He often spent his mornings at the Jardin des Plantes in Paris, his afternoons in his studio where he sculpted animal figures (1929). The strength and charm of his work met immediate success.
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The thirties were years of great activity. Paul still worked a lot with architects and decorators for their upper clientele like the Séailles family or Marie-Blanche de Polignac. At the same time he
created thirteen animal models in bronze between 1930 and 1935. He was one of the very few artists invited at the Exposition Coloniale of Paris in 1931, with 3 bronzes, la « Gazelle » was bought by the French government for the Musée dArt
Contemporain then located at the Palais du Luxembourg in Paris. Another bronze, « Panthère » was bought by the city of Paris for the Petit Palais, at the Salon des Animaliers in 1934.
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Among portraits, his daugthers head done in august 1929 was shown in bronze at the Salon des Tuileries in june 1930,. Jacques-Emile Blanche complimented it in a letter written to
Jeanne Simon (Pauls mother) finding it « not inferior to Despiau....» There was also in 1933 a powerful head of the painter Edmond Aman-Jean which also went to the Musée du
Luxembourg. In 1940 a portrait of Jacques-Emile Blanche was bought at the Salon for the museum of art of Rouen, in Normandy
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His big job of the decade was without doubt « la Campagne » (the Country), a large woman (2,40 m high ) of stone who, in the company of 9 other women and a « water
mirror » adorned the front pavement of the new Musée dArt Moderne of Paris in 1937. He received for this composition the Grand Prix. This opus has today totaly disappeared. In december
1938, to satisfy a demand of the caster Barbedienne, he asked and was granted, authorization to have a reduction of this work cast. It is not known wether they had the time to
do this.
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So as war drew near, his career was solidly established though financial results were meagre.
To avoid paying for the casting in bronze Paul sold his terra cotta
originals. We know that he sold then a lot of his work, mainly elephants and does, often shown as mothers with their young, also lionesses, rhinoceros and hippopotamus. His animal
paintings were also very well liked..
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The 2d World War was for him a frightful cataclysm. He was re-called, in civil defense this time, and was a very dark period. He worked again for Gaumont, maybe his
last decorating work. He still renewed his strength at the Jardin des Plantes. He wrote « The Jardin des Plantes is still my haven in the bad days. The charm of the animals seems to
me so delightful..» He had met the orang-utan just befor the War, but now visited it daily, even having commercial exchanges with it, food against modelling. From this
close relationship came a series of anthropomorphic busts which count among his capital works.
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After the war, life went slowly back to normal. Paul showed his work at the Salons in Paris from 1947 to 1955. Mainly elephants and monkeys, also a large family of lionnesses and
panthers, scenes of motherhood and also a group of 5 young panthers playing, which are at once touching and amusing. He continued developing in his interpretation of elephants as for
instance in the last public order he had for a pair of bas-relief meant for the reconstruction of an art school in the east of France. At the end of the forties, the French government
bought at the Salon, a terra cotta of a couple of dogs, an elephant mother and baby and ordered 15 elephants lying down. The dogs appeared in 1947, followed by toads, young wild boars,
sables and shrew-mice. Everyday animals succeeding to exotics.
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Encouraged by his friend Edouard-Marcel Sandoz, he tried again casting twice, once in 1947 and the other in 1950 with Manufacture Nationale de Sèvres : 4 animals were produced in stoneware
or porcelain. With the Limoges porcelain maker Havilland 10 pieces will be produced in 1955-57.
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From 1950 to 1963, Paul worked freely; he made a few delightful portraits and turned himself towards ceramic object-sculptures : elephant , rhinoceros, hippopotamus,
birds, toads and even a pig tobacco urns; also bird-vases or his superb flower-women drawn from Grandville. There were also plates in the form of fish or leaves, melon- or
pumpkin-boxes with a mouse on top or boxes made as heads of parrots or of leopard.
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In1955 when he sold his studio he stopped showing at the Salon des Animaliers. As he owned a house, at Gassin, in the south of France, he used to spend six
months a year doing his garden and feeding stray cats. His hands being not as firm as they used to, his creations were then few. 1963 is the date of the last one known.
He was 71 years old.
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He made one last public appearance at the Axis gallery, rue Guénégaud in Paris, in 1974 showing mostly ceramics which were a success.
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In july 1979, while at Gassin with his wife and daughter, Paul Simon died, at the age of 87
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He had told his daughter one day that he would come back as an elephant or a toad. She had replied that she preferred the second proposition so as to have a chance to
meet him again sometimes. A toad woke Corinne up that first morning. She says
«... under the arbour at la Campagnette, that toad, enormous, peaceful, a living likeness of his
sculpture, went to bathe in the granite fount brought back from Brittany, then disappeared, and never came back.»
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