He was born on March 16, 1881 in Châtelet in the Charleroi region into a family of artists. He is thus the son of Sylvain Paulus, sculptor and professor of drawing and sculpture at the Industrial, Commercial and Drawing School of Châtelet and Emilie Stradiot. Likewise, he is the brother of Eugène Paulus, sculptor and ceramist. Louise, her younger sister was a designer and an excellent pianist1. After the Armistice of the First World War, he met and married Lucie Mathieu, a native of Nivelles2. They have one child together, Jean-Pierre.
Very early, his father taught him drawing and painting. He destined him for the profession of architect, but very early on his vocation as a painter was revealed3. This is how he entered the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Brussels where he studied under Constant Montald from 1898 to 1903.
In 1904, he took lessons from the sculptor Charles Van der Stappen. There he met, among others, Rik Wouters, Auguste Oleffe and James Ensor. A travel grant allows him to travel to Italy to study the great masters.