Germain van der Steen was a self-taught artist, so passionated about painting that he painted during the night to evade insomnia. His family has been living in Paris for many generations. He was undertaken to study in England and graduated from Oxford. After the first World War, he became a color merchant in the Etoile district in Paris. His art is related to Naïve painting and his global work is segmented into three evolutionary artistic periods: the non-figurative period, that of imaginary plants, multicolored with draperies and at last the period of bestiaries where he mainly represented cats and birds. His color palette is very lively and varied. At the age of 80, he continued to use brushes and colors to give shape to his plant and animal projections.
Germain Van der Steen exhibited at the Salon d’Automne in 1944. He presented about fourteen solo exhibitions and numerous collective events in France, Belgium, Switzerland, the Netherlands, Italy, Austria, Germany, Yugoslavia, the United States, Brazil and Israel.
