Landscape painting by Piette

Landscape painting by Piette
This painting measures 9.25 inches x 7.375 inches
The total dimensions are 13.625 inches x 11.625 inches

Ludovic Piette-Montfoucault (11 May 1826, Niort - 14 April 1878, Paris) was a French Impressionist painter. He came from a family of the minor nobility and his father was the Registrar of Melleray. His first art lessons came from the Academic painters Thomas Couture and Isidore Pils. It was while studying with Couture that he met Edouard Manet, who was already experimenting with new styles. Then, while at the Academie Suisse, he became good friends with Camille Pissarro who, although younger than him, would have a decisive influence on Piette's work. He and other friends of Pissarro would often paint together, en plein-air. In 1857, he had his first show at the Salon. He is said to have received a commission from Napoleon III to provide decorations for the apartments of Empress Eugenie, but there is no official record of this.

In 1864, because of poor health (possibly cancer), he and his wife settled at his family's farm, which he had inherited after his father's death, near Lassay-les-Chateaux in Brittany. At that time, he began writing regularly to Pissarro, whose correspondence is an important record of the formative years of Impressionism, a period with little other documentation. While there, he served on the Municipal council as part of the Liberal Conservative faction.

As with many Impressionists, he tended to focus on landscapes with figures and cityscapes. Among his favorite areas for painting were Pontoise and Louveciennes. In 1877, at Pissarro's invitation, he participated in the third Impressionist Exhibition. After his death, a retrospective of his work was presented at the fourth Exhibition in 1879. A street in Pontoise is named in his honor.
Condition Report: Good condition overall