Étienne Adolphe Piot (1831 – 1910) was a French painter known for his portraits of young women. He exhibited in the

Paris Salon The Salon (french: Salon), or rarely Paris Salon (French: ''Salon de Paris'' ), beginning in 1667 was the official art exhibition of the Académie des Beaux-Arts in Paris. Between 1748 and 1890 it was arguably the greatest annual or biennial art ...

s from 1850 to 1909. Little is known about his life.

Life

Étienne-Adolphe Piot was born 13 February 1831 in

Digoin Digoin () is a commune in the Saône-et-Loire department in the region of Bourgogne-Franche-Comté in eastern France. The junction of the '' Canal du Centre'' and the ''Canal latéral à la Loire'' is near Digoin. Geography The river Bourbince f ...

, Saône-et-Loire, France. He moved to Paris and studied under Léon Cogniet. He first exhibited at the Paris Salon in 1850. In 1860 he was among the painters whose work was shown at the Exposition de Bourdeaux. In 1864 he was living in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the U ...

, and that year exhibited a portrait at the

National Academy of Design The National Academy of Design is an honorary association of American artists, founded in New York City in 1825 by Samuel Morse, Asher Durand, Thomas Cole, Martin E. Thompson, Charles Cushing Wright, Ithiel Town, and others "to promote the f ...

. In 1869 he was again living in Paris, at 21 quai Malaquais in the 6th arrondissement. Up to 1876 he exhibited under the name of Adolphe Piot. Subsequently he began to also use the names Adolphe-Étienne Piot and Étienne-Adolphe Piot. In 1873 Adolphe Piot was described as "a Parisian painter of some name in treating Italian subjects". He was very successful commercially, taking advantage of the increasing demand for portraits from wealthy Parisians. During the ''

Belle Époque The Belle Époque or La Belle Époque (; French for "Beautiful Epoch") is a period of French and European history, usually considered to begin around 1871–1880 and to end with the outbreak of World War I in 1914. Occurring during the era o ...

'' every debutante had to have her portrait painted, and Piot was skilled in making captivating portraits. Piot became a member of the

Société des Artistes Français The Société des Artistes Français (, meaning "Society of French Artists") is the association of French painters and sculptors established in 1881. Its annual exhibition is called the "Salon des artistes français" (not to be confused with the ...

in 1883. In 1890 he received an honorable mention for the work he exhibited at 1889 Exposition Universelle. His last Salon entry seems to have been submitted in 1909.

Work

Most of Piot's early Salon submissions were commissioned portraits of women. With the 1870 Salon he began to exhibit

genre Genre () is any form or type of communication in any mode (written, spoken, digital, artistic, etc.) with socially-agreed-upon conventions developed over time. In popular usage, it normally describes a category of literature, music, or other ...

works with titles such as ''Abandonée'' (The Abandoned), ''Coquetterie'' (Coquetry), and ''La Lettre'' (The Letter). Adolphe Piot created expressive depictions of beautiful women, with dark backgrounds to draw attention to the subject, and also made many works showing children. His works were innocent, picturesque and elegant, appealing to middle class tastes of the time. An 1879 reviewer wrote, Clarence Clark wrote in 1905 in his ''Art and Artists of Our Time'', His work is held by the

Musée des Beaux-Arts de Rouen The Musée des Beaux-Arts de Rouen is an art museum in Rouen, in Normandy in north-western France. It was established by Napoléon Bonaparte in 1801, and is housed in a building designed by and built between 1877 and 1888. Its collections include ...

and the

Brooklyn Museum The Brooklyn Museum is an art museum located in the New York City borough of Brooklyn. At , the museum is New York City's second largest and contains an art collection with around 1.5 million objects. Located near the Prospect Heights, Crown ...

, New York. File:Printemps by Etienne Adolphe Piot.png, ''Printemps'', Salon of 1892 File:Étienne Adolphe Piot Motherhood.jpg, ''Motherhood'' File:Étienne Adolphe Piot Young Italian Woman.jpg, ''Young Italian Woman'' File:Etienne Adolphe Piot - A Young Girl with a Basket of Flowers.jpg, ''A Young Girl with a Basket of Flowers''

Notes

Sources

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External links

Bedford Fine Art Gallery
{{DEFAULTSORT:Piot, Etienne Adolphe 1825 births 1910 deaths 19th-century French painters People from Saône-et-Loire 20th-century French painters