He also illustrated short stories by Alexander Solzhenitsyn
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František Janula was born on 24 March 1932 in Lysá nad Labem, his father was a railwayman. František first studied at a glass-making school, and in the 1950s he studied painting with Professor Josef Kaplický at the Academy of Arts and Crafts in Prague. During his studies he had problems with State Security Service because of his non-conformist lifestyle. For organizing an illegal exhibition in Prague Na Hřebenkách, he and other friends ended up in pre-trial detention in Ruzyně for several days. After graduating, he did not become a member of the Union of Czechoslovak Artists and earned a living as a miner and woodcutter. He had his first exhibitions in the early 1960s, when he also established himself as a book illustrator. For example, he illustrated short stories by Alexander Solzhenitsyn, which were first published in Czechoslovakia in the magazine World Literature. In 1967 he received a scholarship from the French government to study at the Academie des Beaux-Arts in Paris, where he was living at the time of the occupation of Czechoslovakia in August 1968. When the Czechoslovak authorities refused to extend his residence permit in France, he decided to emigrate. In Paris, he supported himself with odd jobs and also stayed in the south of France, where he worked as an agricultural labourer and as a woodcutter. At the same time, he painted and gradually began to exhibit, and today has had over thirty major solo exhibitions in France, Luxembourg and the Netherlands, as well as dozens of participations in group exhibitions around the world. His works are represented in major collections and museums. He lives with his wife Catherine in the northern Parisian suburb of Aubervilliers.