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Lavallée-Poussin [Lavallée], Etienne de
(b Rouen, 1735; d Paris, 1802). French painter, printmaker and designer. He came from a family of architects and engravers that had been active in Rouen since the 16th century, and he may have been distantly related to Jean de La Vallée. He first studied under Jean-Baptiste Descamps at the newly established Académie des Arts du Dessin in Rouen and in 1755 went to Paris and entered the studio of Jean-Baptiste-Marie Pierre. In 1759 he won the Prix de Rome with Elisha Multiplying the Poor Widow’s Oil (untraced), and from 1759 he was at the Ecole des Elèves Protégés in Paris. Already by this time he seems to have been producing landscapes in the manner of Nicolas Poussin and had begun to be referred to by the name Lavallée-Poussin. He was in Rome from 1761 to 1777, for part of the time at the Académie de France. He then stayed with Louis-Auguste Le Tonnelier, Baron de Breteuil, the Maltese Ambassador, whose house, the Garden of Malta, Lavallée decorated in 1770 in mock antique style. Lavallée produced engravings ‘after Poussin’ that were in fact of his own invention (e.g. the Dream of Sylvia and Satyr and Dancing Nymph, both 1764; see Blunt, pp. 37, 39). He also produced ornamental designs and acquired an extensive knowledge of antique and Renaissance detail. He followed Piranesi’s interest in antiquities, as is shown in his drawing Still-life with Antiquities (Stockholm, Nmus.).
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