Pierre Deval (1897 in Lyon – 1993 in La Valette-du-Var), was a French figurative painter of the 20th century, noted as a colorist and for his subtle paintings of women and children.
Pierre was of fragile health, and his parents took him frequently to the countryside or beach resorts for rest and a change of air, or to Paris to visit the galleries of the Luxembourg Palace and the Louvre.
He also frequented the musee Saint Pierre in Lyon, where he was deeply impressed by the drawings and sculpture of Auguste Rodin, and visited the Institute of Archeology, where he saw the reproductions of Greco-Latin statues and developed a passion for Greek and Roman myths, which was to play a large part in his later work.
In 1921, he became a friend of the French surrealist poet Jacques Rigaut, who introduced him into the circle of the Dadaism, and of Tristan Tzara, and writers André Breton and Louis Aragon.
Other painters in the salon that year included Henri Matisse, Claude Monet, Pierre Bonnard, Paul Gauguin, Roussel and Cross.
In 1924 he was selected to participate in the Venice Biennale, with a group of French artists that included Albert Marquet, Pierre Bonnard, and Maurice Denis.
He welcomed to his house other artists who had moved to Provence, including writer and poet Henri Bosco, and the painters Raoul Dufy, Marquet, Jean Puy and Willy Eisenschitz.