Around 1913, as a teenager, he went through a serious mental crisis. He was silent for a year and had suicidal intentions. During a therapeutic trip to Rome he produced his first watercolors. After high school he volunteered for the military service which led him to the Carpathian Mountains in 1917 and resulted in a severe tuberculosis disease.
Sergius Pauser studied at the Academy of Fine Arts in Munich from 1919 to 1924 where he was especially influenced by the artistic work of Max Beckmann and Otto Dix, and from 1925 to 1926 at the Vienna Academy of Art under Karl Sterrer. He became a member of the Secession in 1927 and regularly took part in Secession exhibitions. Both, the critics as well as the Austrian society, gave him credit for his portraits. In 1932 he was awarded the Austrian state prize.
His student and patron, the leather manufacturer Fritz Sinaiberger, enabled him study trips to Italy, France and Switzerland, where he was confirmed in his realistic-expressive style of painting. In 1934 and 1936 he was represented at the Biennale in Venice. Exhibitions in Germany, Switzerland and the USA as well as numerous awards (including the great gold medal of honour of the city of Budapest) made him internationally known.
In 1943 Pauser took over the supervision of the master school of painting at the Academy and in 1947 he was appointed professor. He taught there until 1966.
After the war he was much in demand as a portraitist and firmly integrated in the Austrian art scene. He made portraits of many politicians and actors and received numerous awards and honors. His work was shown in a major retrospective at the Österreichische Galerie Belvedere in 1996 and is located in numerous important collections today.
Sergius Pauser died on 16 March 1970 at the age of 74 in Klosterneuburg.
