Edmond-Jean de Pury
Born in Neuchâtel (Switzerland) on 6 March 1845.
Died in Lausanne (Switzerland) on 7 November 1911.
Swiss · 19th-century Swiss painting · portraiture, genre scenes and Italian subjects
Edmond-Jean de Pury (Neuchâtel, 6 March 1845 – Lausanne, 7 November 1911) was a Swiss painter, printmaker and portraitist whose work connects the Parisian academic tradition with a highly personal vision of Italy. A member of the de Pury family, he trained in Paris in the studio of Charles Gleyre, one of the major centres of nineteenth-century Swiss and French painting. A group portrait of Gleyre’s students now in the Petit Palais records his place in that circle.
From 1869 he continued his artistic development in Florence and travelled extensively in Italy.
Rome, Naples, Capri, Venice and especially Chioggia became central to his imagery. The death of his young son in 1881 marked his life deeply; from 1885 de Pury spent his summers regularly in Chioggia, developing a body of paintings devoted to working people, fishermen, children, young women and scenes of daily life. His art combines exact portrait observation with close attention to costume, gesture and the light of the lagoon.
«Rosaire (Chioggia)», painted in 1892 and now on loan from the Swiss Federal Art Collection to the Musée des Beaux-Arts Le Locle, is a major institutional example of this period.
At the same time de Pury remained a sought-after portraitist. Around 1882 he painted Richard Wagner during the composer’s stay in Naples. His portraits and genre scenes circulated widely, including through illustrated periodicals.
In 1889 he received a medal at the Paris Exposition Universelle, an important international recognition.
His auction market is strongest for ambitious Italian subjects and accomplished portraits. In 2007 «Barque avec deux jeunes filles» sold for CHF 22,500 at Sotheby’s Zurich, while «Fischerjunge in einem Boot mit der Silhouette von Venedig im Hintergrund», a large 115.4 × 151.2 cm canvas, realised CHF 60,000 at Koller, a major benchmark for the artist. «Les pêcheurs sur le lac» reached CHF 26,400 at Christie’s Zurich in 2011.
These results demonstrate the clear premium attached to substantial Venetian compositions over small studies and secondary portraits.
