Pierre-Alexandre Wille (19 July 1748, in

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...

– 1837, in Paris)Biographical notes
@ the

British Museum The British Museum is a Museum, public museum dedicated to human history, art and culture located in the Bloomsbury area of London. Its permanent collection of eight million works is the largest in the world. It documents the story of human cu ...

was a French

genre Genre () is any style or form 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 fo ...

painter.

Life and work

Son of the engraver, Johann Georg Wille, he received his first lessons in art at his father's studio. From 1761 to 1763, he studied with

Jean-Baptiste Greuze Jean-Baptiste Greuze (, 21 August 1725 – 4 March 1805) was a French painter of portraits, genre scenes, and history painting. Early life Greuze was born at Tournus, a market town in Burgundy. He is generally said to have formed his own ...

, then with

Joseph-Marie Vien Joseph-Marie Vien (sometimes anglicised as Joseph-Mary Wien; 18 June 1716 – 27 March 1809) was a French painter. He was the last holder of the post of Premier peintre du Roi, serving from 1789 to 1791. Biography He was born in Montpellier. P ...

. Relying on his father's influence to promote his career, he became a member of the

Académie Royale de Peinture et de Sculpture The Académie royale de peinture et de sculpture (; ) was founded in 1648 in Paris, France. It was the premier art institution of France during the latter part of the Ancien Régime until it was abolished in 1793 during the French Revolution. I ...

in 1774, but never became an Academician. The following year, he married Claude-Paule Abau. He exhibited at most of the Salons from 1775 to 1787. For a time, he served as a court painter to King

Louis XVI Louis XVI (Louis-Auguste; ; 23 August 1754 – 21 January 1793) was the last king of France before the fall of the monarchy during the French Revolution. The son of Louis, Dauphin of France (1729–1765), Louis, Dauphin of France (son and heir- ...

. Some of his paintings were engraved by his father. During the French Revolution, he served with the

Garde Nationale The National Guard () is a French military, gendarmerie, and police reserve force, active in its current form since 2016 but originally founded in 1789 during the French Revolution. It was founded as separate from the French Army and exis ...

, but was ruined financially. He continued to paint, although his work had become hopelessly out of fashion. He held his last exhibit (a few watercolors) at the Salon in 1819. In 1821, after recurring bouts of illness over twelve years, Claude-Paule went mad and was committed to the asylum at Charenton. In order to pay the cost of her stay there, he had to appeal for charity from Duchess Marie Thérèse. Nothing more was heard from him, and it was long assumed that he died shortly after; possibly also in a hospital. More recently, the British writer, Colin Clark, son of the art historian,

Kenneth Clark Kenneth Mackenzie Clark, Baron Clark (13 July 1903 – 21 May 1983) was a British art historian, museum director and broadcaster. His expertise covered a wide range of artists and periods, but he is particularly associated with Italian Renaissa ...

, was able to establish that he had died in poverty in 1837, at the age of eighty-eight.

References

External links

"Pierre-Alexandre Wille and the French Revolution"
by K. E. Maison, in: ''Master Drawings'', Vol. 10, No. 1 (Spring, 1972)
Pierre-Alexandre Wille
@ the Base Joconde
Notes
@ Russian Wikisource, from the ''

Brockhaus and Efron Encyclopedic Dictionary The ''Brockhaus and Efron Encyclopaedic Dictionary'' (35 volumes, small; 86 volumes, large) is a comprehensive multi-volume encyclopaedia in Russian. It contains 121,240 articles, 7,800 images, and 235 maps. It was published in the Russian Em ...

'' {{DEFAULTSORT:Wille, Pierre-Alexandre 1748 births 1837 deaths 18th-century French painters French genre painters Académie royale de peinture et de sculpture Painters from Paris 19th-century French painters Members of the Académie royale de peinture et de sculpture