Jean Couty studied architecture for eight years at the École des Beaux-Arts in Lyon and then in Paris, while working as a painter.
In addition to designing theatre sets and wall decorations, Couty enjoys painting objects, familiar landscapes, ordinary workers, and religious subjects. Drawing at first in a free, simple, traditional style, he painted clearly defined shapes with bright colors applied in thick layers. He is a well-known member of the Lyon school.
He exhibited at the Salon des Indépendants in Paris from 1935 to 1940, at the Salon des Peintres Témoins de leur Temps and at the Menton Biennial, where he won first prize in 1953. He had numerous solo exhibitions in Lyon and Paris between 1945 and 1989. Posthumous exhibitions and retrospectives include those at the Galerie Larock-Granoff in Paris (1997 retrospective) and the Paul Dini Museum in Villefranche-sur-Saône (2002). A Jean Couty museum opened its doors in Lyon in 2017.