The painter and printmaker Mervin Jules was born in Baltimore, Maryland, where he received his initial arts training at Baltimore City College and the Maryland Institute College of Art. He first exhibited his work in 1935 at The Baltimore Museum of Art. Jules later studied in New York at the Art Students League under Thomas Hart Benton, and held his first one-man show in New York City in November 1937. Jules' art reflected his disillusionment with the plight of the poor, and attacked seemingly intractable social ills.

Jules' woodcuts are represented in numerous collections. He was a teacher of art at the Fieldston School, the Museum of Modern Art (1943-46), the Baltimore Educational Alliance, the Veterans' Art Center and at Smith College. After teaching at Smith College from 1946-1969, in 1969 he became Chair of the Art Department at the City College of New York. He kept a studio in Provincetown, Massachusetts, where he died.