Pierre Jean Charles Deval (1897 - 1993) Female Nude

A highly sensual female nude by Pierre Deval, a great 20th-century figurative painter. An intimate painting with refined colors.

Oil on canvas.
Signed lower left.
Dimensions: 54 x 81 cm. Framed: 71 x 99 cm.

Pierre Deval is a great figurative painter of the 20th century.

A discreet artist, Pierre Deval lived through the 20th century, dedicating his life to the pleasure of painting. He offers us uncluttered landscapes as well as portraits of women and sensual nudes. A true ode to life, his canvases express happiness.
Women are one of his favorite subjects;

Pierre Deval celebrates them with infinite delicacy. A young nude woman reclines on a sofa with colorful patterns. The pink of his cheeks echoes the orange-red of the sofa. The painting is clear and luminous, as if a ray of sunshine were illuminating the scene.

Biography:

Born in Lyon into a family of Lyon silk merchants, but settled in La Valette du Var from 1925 until his death, he is considered Lyonnais by some and Provençal by others. Self-taught and outside the Parisian commercial circuits, the destiny of Pierre Deval, nicknamed the Master of Orvès, was set very early. Having come to study in Paris, he spent a month in Fernand Cormon's studio and participated in the Dada movement with, notably, Breton, Tzara, and Aragon. At only 24 years old, he was noticed by Léonce Bénédite at the 1921 Salon, where the State acquired his Ariane. This success opened the doors of the Villa Abd el Tif in Algiers, where he was admitted as a resident for two years, and where he became friends with Albert Marque. He received the Abd-el-Tif Prize in 1922 and exhibited at the Venice Biennale in 1924. Subsequently, he lived in Paris, traveled extensively with Marquet, and frequented some of the most illustrious Fauves and other leading figures of the era, such as Charles Camoin, Henri Charles Manguin, and Henri Matisse. In 1925, captivated by the beauty of the region, he acquired the Orvès estate, an 18th-century manor house in La Valette-du-Var. The estate, whose grounds are now designated a Remarkable Garden, welcomed and inspired friends, painters, critics, art publishers, and writers. He settled permanently in the South of France, at the Château d'Orvès, and became "a Provençal painter." Pierre Deval met Michel Estades in 1986, who became his friend, his last and only art dealer, and his expert. Deval exhibited at the Salon d'Automne from 1920 onwards, as well as at the Salon des Tuileries, the Salon des Indépendants, the Salon de l'Art Français Indépendant, the Salon d'Automne in Lyon, and the Salon du Sud-Est (Lyon). His painting transcended hardships: the two World Wars, the economic crisis of the 1930s, the dominance of abstract art, and the threat of destruction to the Orvès estate, expressing happiness. He was the subject of a major exhibition for his centenary, followed by two large retrospectives: one in 1998 at the Musée de Toulon and the other in 1999 at the Maison Ravier in Morestel. His works are exhibited in numerous museums.

Bibliography

• René Édouard-Joseph, Biographical Dictionary of Contemporary Artists, Volume 1, AE, Art & Edition, 1930, p. 405. • Michèle Gorrenc, Pierre Deval, the Master of Orvès, 1997, Marseille, Éditions Autres temps, 1997. • Élisabeth Cazenave, The Villa Abd-el-Tif, Half a Century of Artistic Life in Algeria, 1907-1962, Éditions Abd-el-Tif, 1998. • Dominique Buis, Marie-Jo Volle, Nathalie Garel, Pierre Deval: Painting in the Ardèche - From Prehistory to the 20th Century, Privas, Mémoire d'Ardèche et Temps Présent, 2022, chap. 2

Museums

in France • Museum of Fine Arts of Lyon. • Toulon Art Museum.

Abroad: • National Museum of Fine Arts of Algiers. • Zabana National Museum of Oran. • Tokyo National Museum. • British Museum of London.