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Py, Bertrand
(b Belfort, 20 March 1895; d Paris, 2 Oct 1973). French painter. He entered the Ecole Nationale Supérieure des Beaux-Arts in 1910 where he trained under Gabriel Ferrier (18471914), René Huet (18761914) and Luc Olivier Merson. He exhibited regularly at the Salon des Indépendants, but, being independently wealthy, he found it unnecessary to sell his paintings. Trips to Tunisia (1924), Spain (1929) and Provence (1939) resulted in strictly controlled geometric landscapes inspired by Cézanne and saturated with light. Py exhibited widely following his first one-man show in 1929 (Paris, Gal. Armand Drouant), notably at the exhibition VIIe Groupe des artistes de ce temps (1935, Paris, Petit Pal.). He lived from 1939 to 1943 in Aix-en-Provence, painting landscapes and a series of poignant, unidealized self-portraits. On returning to Paris he continued to exhibit regularly, with one-man shows in 1965, 1968, 1970 and 1971 at the Galerie Bruno Bassano, Paris. His work continued to arouse interest after his death, and was included in various subsequent exhibitions in France.
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