Pierre Deval

Pierre Deval (1897 in Lyon – 1993 in La Valette-du-Var), was a French figurative painter of the 20th century, noted as a colorist and for his subtle paintings of women and children. In the 1920s and 1930s, the Domaine d'Orvès, his house at La Valette-du-Var, was a gathering place for French artists who worked along the Côte d'Azur and in Provence.

Youth and Education

Pierre Jean Charles Deval was born August 20, 1897, in Lyon, the third child of a silk merchant, Gustave Deval (1853–1943). Pierre was of fragile health, a realistic painting of the back of a woman lying on her side, looking at a cityscape, which was purchased by the French Government for the Musee Luxembourg, and hung in the Jeu de Pomme. Other painters in the salon that year included Henri Matisse, Claude Monet, Pierre Bonnard, Paul Gauguin, Roussel and Cross.

In the autumn of 1922, the success of his painting Ariane earned him a two-year fellowship at the Villa Abd-el-Tif in Algiers,

When his fellowship ended he returned to Paris and moved into the studio at 19 quai St. Michel which Matisse had just vacated. He experimented with different styles, and in 1926 he painted five watercolors of modern Parisian life for a book L'ecole des indifferents by Jean Giraudoux. He worked as an illustrator for several journals, and showed his work in Paris galleries.

Deval in Provence

In 1925 he decided to move to the South of France, and purchased a 17th-century bastide at Valette-du-Gard, near Hyeres. He installed his studio on the first floor and painted murals of mythological scenes on the walls of the dining room and entry hall. He welcomed to his house other artists who had moved to Provence, including writer and poet Henri Bosco, and the painters Raoul Dufy, Marquet, Jean Puy and Willy Eisenschitz. In the years that followed he painted realistic scenes of Marseille and Toulon, and sensitive paintings of women, children and families. He took part in a show in Marseille in 1933 on Provence seen by painters.

During World War II, he saw his home occupied by a German artillery unit, who cut down most of the trees to have a clear view for their guns. He was finally able to return to his house in 1944. After the war he ran into trouble with the French Communist Party, who dominated the Paris art world, when he did not sign a petition opposing the re-armament of Germany, saying that he was an artist and he preferred to sign only paintings. Thereafter he showed his work mostly at galleries in Provence.

He died at his house in La Valette-du-Var in 1993, little known by the public, but respected by his fellow artists in Provence.

Paintings by Deval in Museum Collections Musée National des Beaux Arts in Algiers Musée Ahmed Zabana in Oran National Museum in Tokyo British Museum in London

Musée des Beaux-Arts de Lyon

Sources and Citations