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About Paul Penczner
- Paul Joseph Penczner (September 17, 1916 – June 27, 2010) was a Hungarian-born artist who lived in the United States. The artist was born in a small town near Budapest, Hungary.
- As a child, he showed talent in art.
- One of his greatest accomplishments in life, per Penczner, was “when Pope Pius XII accepted a series of my works, which I created to commemorate the founding of a Hungarian religious order.
- I was so very young, but honored by his acceptance.” During World War II, he was a second lieutenant in the Hungarian army, then serving in alliance with the Wehrmacht under the direction of Germany's Nazi regime.
- Near the city of Cegled, he was wounded by a Soviet T34 tank and suffered damage to his eyesight.
- He was later transferred to the western front.
- At the end of the war, he was held for a number of months by Allied forces.
- After being released, he applied for immigration to the United States.
- While awaiting permission to immigrate, he spent several years painting portraits and landscapes in Europe. In 1951, Penczner came to the United States with his German born wife, Jolanda.
- They settled in Memphis, Tennessee.
- Commissions for portraits began almost immediately.
- He spent the next fifty five years in Memphis, where he established the Penczner Fine Art Studio.
- During this time, he painted the portraits of many well known southerners, including Governor Winfield Dunn. For many years, he taught drawing, painting, and portraiture.
- Penczner was a member of the Pi Kappa Alpha fraternity.
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