Edmond Jean de Pury

De Pury was born on 6 March 1845 in Neuchâtel.[1][2] He was a member of a Prussian noble family and was a nephew of James-Ferdinand de Pury.[3]

He trained at the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris, studying painting and engraving.[2] While at school in Paris, he was a student of Charles Gleyre[2][3]

In a composite group portrait of students in Gleyre's atelier,[4] de Pury was painted in the nude by fellow student Alfred Lenglet. Another student, Paul Milliet, wrote of the image in his memoirs: "The fragment…shows the athletic torso of…de Pury. Alfred Lenglet's painting is solid and luminous, but to render completely the elegant vigor of the model would have required the chisel of a Greek sculptor."[5]

Although he painted landscapes, de Pury's main focus was portraiture.[2][6][7] He was best known for his Italalian figure paintings, mainly of working-class people of Rome, Capri, and Venice.[2] The highest price for one of his paintings was US$40,599 in 2007 for In the Lagoons of Venice.[1][8] His paintings were exhibited in Paris.[2] His portrait of Richard Wagner was completed two years before the composer's death.[2] His work is displayed in the collections of the Museum of Fine Arts Bern, the Kunstmuseum Basel, the Museum des Beaux-Arts de La Chaux-de-Fonds, the Musée d'Art et d'Histoire de Genève, and the Cantonal Museum of Fine Arts.[9][2]

In 1889 de Pury was awarded a medal at the Exposition Universelle.[2]

He was married to Marie Amélie Mathilde Wagniere, who was also an artist.[2]

De Pury died on 7 November 1911 in Lausanne.[1][2][10]