Pierre Roy was a French painter born in the Nantes region on August 10, 1880. He was the eldest of four children, all of whom became amateur painters!
After graduating with a baccalauréat in literature and philosophy, he first studied architecture, then attended the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris, which he left to work on preparations for the 1900 Universal Exhibition.
In 1905, he decided to devote himself to painting, exhibiting for the first time at the Salon de la Société nationale des beaux-arts in 1906, then at the Salon des Indépendants in 1914. 
A close friend of Apollinaire and Max Jacob, he was dubbed the “father of surrealism” in the Revue de France. In 1925, Pierre Roy took part in the first exhibition of Surrealist painters, alongside Giorgio De Chirico, Max Ernst and Pablo Picasso. In 1926, he held his first solo exhibition, whose catalog was prefaced by Louis Aragon. In 1933, he was appointed painter to the French Navy for five years.
He enjoyed success with an exhibition devoted to him at the Galerie des Beaux-Arts in Paris in 1935. He also exhibited at the 1937 Universal Exhibition and at the Galerie Montaigne in Paris in 1938.

Pierre Roy travels and exhibits 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, at the Wildenstein Gallery in 1934, in Hawaii, at the Honolulu Academy of Arts in 1939.
His paintings poetically depict everyday objects. They include shells, ribbons, vegetables and fruit, as well as spools of wool. He depicts them as realistically as possible.
Pierre Roy has also created numerous covers for Vogue magazine, advertising posters and theater sets.

His paintings can be seen at the Museum of Modern Art in New York, the Musée National d'Art Moderne in Paris and the Musée des Beaux-Arts in his native Nantes.

In 1947, in response to a questionnaire from the Museum of Modern Art in New York, he replied: “As a painter, I have absolutely no philosophy. When I paint anything, I'm all about the pleasure of painting. I have no intention whatsoever of symbolism. But very often, sometimes long after I've finished my painting, I become aware of what inspired me and what my canvas means.”