Eugène Leroy was a French artist known for his expressive and thickly painted surfaces. His primary subject was the nude, created using traditional painting tools and methods applied generously to the canvas—adding layers upon layers of paint until human forms are barely distinguishable. For most of his career, Leroy’s work remained largely unknown until his discovery during the Neo-Expressionist wave of the early 1980s. It was only late into his life that he had his first major solo exhibition at Michael Werner Gallery in Cologne in 1983, and his first American show at Edward Thorp the following year. His paintings were given their own gallery at the ninth documenta in Kassel, Germany. The artist was born on August 8, 1910 in Tourcoing, France, and in 1996 he was awarded the Grand Prix Nationale de la Peinture. Just four years later, he died on May 10, 2000 in Lille, France. The city of Tourcoing renamed its Musée des Beaux-Arts to the MUba Eugène Leroy in his honor in 2010.