Philippe Hosiasson grew up in Odessa in family of merchants, relatives of the Russian writer Boris Pasternak (1890-1960). Between 1910 and 1912, Hosiasson traveled to Berlin with his parents and got in touch with the occidental avant-garde. He started drawing very early and in 1912, after a short stay at the Academy of Fine Arts of Odessa, he studied law and history of art at the University of Odessa.

In 1917, he published a text on El Gréco.

In 1918, he married Olga Bilinsky and in 1920 his university sent him to Rome where he met André Derain, who was working for Diaghilev's ballets. Fascinated by the Romans, he drew everything around him, the crowds, the streets.

In 1922, Hosiasson was in Berlin where he was, in turn...