Born in 1921 in Tunis, Jellal Ben Abdallah enrolled in the École des Beaux-Arts de Tunis but stayed only three weeks. After winning the first prize in painting and receiving a scholarship, he moved to Paris for three months in 1949. In Paris, Ben Abdallah joined the Académie de la Grande Chaumière in Montparnasse district and also traveled to Venice, Florence and Rome. Still, Ben Abdallah is more considered to be a self-taught artist and acquired experiences from his encounters with European or Tunisian professional painters. He progressively entered the Tunisian artistic circles and was a founding member of the École de Tunis under the supervision of Pierre Boucherle in 1949. For a while, Jellal Ben Abdallah was passionate about the Italian Renaissance and primitives, but the initial artist's inspiration was the Tunisian popular culture. He fancied illustrating moments of daily life, particularly with female figures, through very poetic scenes in the style of a miniaturist. His drawings were delicate, and his lines simplified. In parallel, he was commissioned to execute frescoes or decors for many establishments and institutions in France and Tunisia. Jellal Ben Abdallah passed away in 2017 in Sidi Bou Saïd.

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