French painter and printmaker, born at Roanne. He trained at the École des Beaux-Arts, Lyon (1895–8) and in Paris at the *Académie Julian (1898) and the *Académie Carrière (1899), where he became a friend of *Matisse. His early work was *Impressionist, but he became one of the more moderate members of the *Fauves, exhibiting with them at the famous *Salon d'Automne show of 1905. He painted traditional subjects such as landscapes, nudes, interiors, and flowers in a bright, clear, spontaneous style. After the heyday of Fauvism (1905–7) his work became more straightforwardly naturalistic. Apart from paintings he produced etchings, lithographs, and woodcuts as book illustrations. His brother Michel Puy (1878–1960) was an art critic; he was one of the first writers to champion the Fauves and was also sympathetic to *Cubism.