Jean Puy (French, 1876–1960) began his artistic training under
Tony Tollet at the Académie des Beaux-Arts in Lyon, and later studied with
Jean Paul Laurens and
Benjamin Constant at the Académie Julian in Paris in 1898. He met many of
Gustave Moreau’s students at
Eugène Carrière’s studio, forming friendships with
Henri Matisse and
André Derain, with whom he started exhibiting in 1904 at the Salon d’Automne. He became sociétaire the following year. Though his style was perhaps more conservative than other Fauvist artists, they shared similar interests in landscape painting.
Following his service at the front during World War I, he traveled to Paris, Brittany, and the Côte d’Azur in the 1920s, finally settling in Lyon, and participated in numerous group and solo exhibitions throughout his life.
A retrospective of his work was organized in 1988 in Roanne, his birthplace.