Guy Pene du Bois

Pène du Bois, Guy (1884–1958). American painter and writer on art. He was a pupil of Robert Henri, and as art critic or reporter on several newspapers he was a leading spokesman for the painters in Henri's circle. His own paintings concentrated on themes set in New York, particularly the social life of the rich, often treated satiricallly, with the figures like mannequins. He wrote several short books on American artists, including Hopper and Sloan, and an autobiography, Artists Say the Silliest Things (1940).

Guy Pène du Bois , 1884-1958, American painter and critic, b. Brooklyn, N.Y.; studied under William Chase and in Paris. In New York City after 1906 he worked as a reporter and art critic for various newspapers and edited Arts and Decoration. The wry humor of his early paintings of social manners gives way in later work to more somber presentations of human manners and mores. His paintings include Morning, Paris Café (Whitney Mus., New York City) and Restaurant Number 1 and Number 2 (Art Inst., Chicago).

Bibliography: See his autobiography, Artists Say the Silliest Things (1940).