Pierre Roy
Pierre Roy (10 August 1880 – 26 September 1950) was a French surrealist painter. He is known for his realistically painted compositions of ordinary objects such as fruits, vegetables, woolen reels, ears, seeds, eggs, and ribbons, all arranged in unexpected ways.
Pierre Roy

GualdimG · CC BY-SA 4.0
- Born
- 1880 · Nantes.
- Died
- 1950 · Milan.
- Nationality
- France
- Occupation
- painter
- Education
- Beaux-Arts de Paris · École nationale supérieure des arts décoratifs
- Honours
- Knight of the Legion of Honour · Croix de guerre 1914–1918
- Languages
- French
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Documentary summary
Pierre Roy (10 August 1880 – 26 September 1950) was a French surrealist painter. He is known for his realistically painted compositions of ordinary objects such as fruits, vegetables, woolen reels, ears, seeds, eggs, and ribbons, all arranged in unexpected ways.
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Educated At · outgoing
Beaux-Arts de Paris
Organisation

Awarded · outgoing
Croix de guerre 1914–1918
Term
This photograph is part of the Fonds Raoul Berthelé , preserved by the city archives of Toulouse. It was provided to Wikimedia Commons as part of a cooperation project with Wikimédia France . In 1978,
Educated At · outgoing
École nationale supérieure des arts décoratifs
Organisation
Citizen Of · outgoing
France
Place
Born In · outgoing
Nantes
Place
Documentary evidence
Documentary basis
Authority files
wikidata · Q1347013
In this article
Biography
Biography
Pierre Roy studied at Beaux-Arts de Paris and École nationale supérieure des arts décoratifs. The recorded working language is French. Positions recorded include Peintre de la Marine. Work by Pierre Roy is recorded in the collections of Museum of Modern Art, Tate, Musée d'art moderne de Paris, Israel Museum and Art Institute of Chicago. Distinctions recorded are Knight of the Legion of Honour and Croix de guerre 1914–1918.
He was the eldest of four children of the secretary of the management board of the Musée d'Arts de Nantes, all of whom became amateur painters. After gaining his baccalauréat at the local school he joined a firm of architects before enrolling at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts in Paris. Disappointed with the course, he left to work on the designs for the 1900 Paris Exposition. In 1905, he decided to devote himself to painting, beginning in 1906 at the Salon of the Société Nationale des Beaux-Arts (SNBA), a painters collective. He exhibited in 1907, 1908, 1913 and 1914 at the Société des Artistes Indépendants. In 1925, he took part in the first exhibition by surrealist painters alongside Giorgio de Chirico, Max Ernst and Pablo Picasso, and in 1926 had his first solo exhibition. In 1933 he was appointed for five years as a naval artist. An exhibition devoted to his work was held at the Galerie des Beaux-Arts in Paris in 1935, and his work was displayed at the 1937 World's Fair and the Montaigne Gallery in Paris in 1938. He travelled and exhibited in galleries around the world: in New York at the Brummer Gallery in 1930 and 1933, at the Julien Levy Gallery in 1932, at the Museum of Modern Art in New York in 1936, at the Carstairs Gallery in 1949, in London in 1934, at the Wildenstein Gallery and in Hawaii in 1939 at the Honolulu Academy of Arts. In addition he created stage sets, several covers for Vogue magazine, and advertising posters.
Identity
Identity
Pierre Roy is recorded with the occupation painter. Recorded as a citizen of France.

Landscape with Sea Shells
Pierre Roy (painter, 1880 – 1950)
Life and career
Dated record
Life and career
Explore 1880–1950
The full dated record · 4 entries
1880
Pierre Roy was born on 10 August 1880.
Undated
Pierre Roy is recorded as having received Knight of the Legion of Honour and Croix de guerre 1914–1918.
1927
Pierre Roy - Danger On The Stairs (1927) is digitised and catalogued by Internet Archive.
1950
Pierre Roy died on 26 September 1950.
Places
Named by the record
Places
Only places the record itself states, plotted where the house gazetteer settles their coordinates. Nothing is inferred from a name or a nationality.
Nantes.
Birth place
Milan.
Death place
Work in public collections
• New York, Museum of Modern Art • Danger dans l'escalier (Danger on the stairs), 1928, oil on canvas, 91 × 60 cm MoMA • L'Heure d'été (Daylight Saving Time), 1929, oil on canvas, 54 × 38 cm MoMA • Country Fair, c.1930, oil on canvas, 41 x 33 cm MoMA • Art Institute of Chicago • Still Life, 1938, oil on canvas, 35 × 27 cm AIC • Philadelphia Museum of Art • Metric System, c.1933, oil on canvas, 146 x 99 cm PMA • Tate Modern, London • A Naturalist's Study, 1928, oil on canvas, 92 x 65 cm Tate • Boris Anrep in his Studio, 65 Boulevard, Arago, 1949, oil on canvas, 65 x 50 cm Tate • Nantes, France, Musée des Beaux-arts • Adrienne pêcheuse (Adrienne the Fisherwoman), 1919, oil on canvas, 52 × 35 cm History of Art • Paris, Musée National d'Art Moderne • Une Journée à la campagne (A Day in the Countryside), 1931, oil on canvas, 33 x 55 cm History of Art
Notes from the source article
Cited by Wikipedia
Notes from the source article
These works are cited by the source article, in its own numbering. They are recorded as its citations, not as sources VALÉORINE has verified.
- 1.René Passeron, Encyclopédie du Surréalisme, éd. Somogy, 1975
- 2.Reproduction dans Beaux Arts magazine, , mars 1995, p. 90.
- 3.Reproduction dans Beaux Arts magazine, , mars 1995, p. 88.
- 4.Reproduction dans Beaux Arts magazine, , mars 1995, p. 86.
- 5.Reproduction dans Beaux Arts magazine, , mars 1995, p. 89.
- 6.Article journal Libération, du 30 mars 1995 (consulté le 18 juin 2015).
Bibliography printed in the source article · 3
- Pierre Roy, musée des Beaux-Arts de Nantes et Somogy éditions d'art, Paris, 1994.
- Adam Biro et René Passeron, Dictionnaire général du surréalisme et de ses environs, Office du Livre, Fribourg, Suisse et Presses universitaires de France, Paris, 1982, p. 370.
- Nicolas Blondel, « Les Folies douces de Monsieur Roy », Beaux Arts magazine, n° 132, , p. 86 à 91.
References
Citations
References
Each reference names the institution holding it, so a reader may go to the document itself.
reference work
Wikidata, structured authority record Q1347013: Pierre RoyWikimedia Foundation
Secondary witness
Further particulars
Held on the record
Further particulars
Open the remaining particulars
Pierre Roy received Knight of the Legion of Honour and Croix de guerre 1914–1918. Connected to 1 other published record in the VALÉORINE Encyclopedia.
Recognition and collections
Work by Pierre Roy is
Museum of Modern Art, Tate, Musée d'art moderne de Paris and Israel Museum
Within the Encyclopedia
The Encyclopedia exists whether or not anything is for sale. Corrections are recorded rather than overwritten, and every version of this record is kept. Published 17 August 2026.
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