Edmond-Jean de Pury
Born in Neuchâtel (Switzerland) in 1845.
Died in Lausanne (Switzerland) in 1911.
Swiss · Genre painting and portraiture of the second half of the nineteenth century · Parisian academic training and Italian, especially Venetian, subjects.
Edmond-Jean de Pury developed a practice encompassing figure painting, genre scenes and portraiture, rooted in the cultural milieu of Neuchâtel while shaped by Parisian training. He attended Charles Gleyre’s private studio in Paris and continued his studies in Florence in 1869, developing both a disciplined command of drawing and a close attention to human presence.
Italy became the enduring centre of his artistic imagination. Rome, Capri, Naples and, above all, Venice provided the subjects that define a major part of his work: fishermen, young women, children, boats and scenes of everyday life, observed in the light of lagoons and Mediterranean shores. From 1885 onward, he spent regular periods in Venice while retaining close ties with Neuchâtel.
Alongside these Italian subjects, de Pury established himself as a sought-after portrait painter, combining physiognomic precision, social elegance and a lively touch. His work received a medal at the Paris Exposition Universelle of 1889 and was also disseminated through the illustrated press of his day.
Works by Edmond-Jean de Pury are held by the MBAL in Le Locle and the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford, including a view of the Venetian lagoon dated 1901. Swiss Art Gallery presents Jeune fille au poisson (1894), catalogued as attributed to Edmond-Jean de Pury.
