Pierre-Louis De la Rive
Born in 1753.
Died in 1817.
He receives his initial training from Chevalier Fassin, then continues his studies at the Academy of Fine Arts in Dresden under the direction of Giovanni Battista Casanova. After marrying Théodora-Charlotte Godefroy in 1779, he returns to Geneva that same year, where his artistic activity is based primarily, settling in Céligny after 1787.
In Geneva, he takes part in local institutional life: as an active member of the drawing committee of the Société des arts, he exhibits at the society’s first Salons in 1789 and 1792. Also engaged in public life, he is recorded as a member of the Conseil des Deux-Cents from 1788 onwards. The Genevan Revolution brings him financial difficulties that lead him to emigrate to Bern in 1794, before returning and settling in Presinge in 1797.
Internationally, he exhibits at the Paris Salon between 1799 and 1801.
Around 1793, following the example and advice of contemporaries such as Saint-Ours, he begins producing large “drawn paintings” in wash and sepia after his own compositions, alongside a practice of engraving and etching.
Thematically, he is associated with the Genevan school of landscape painting, and the sources attribute to him the execution, dated 1802, of an autonomous representation of Mont Blanc. Several of his works are held in Swiss public collections: the Musée d’art et d’histoire in Geneva preserves, in particular, Le Mont‑Blanc vu de Sallanches au coucher du soleil (1802), La Fenaison à Saint‑Gingolphe (1792) and Le Mausolée (1787). French public repositories also hold paintings mentioned in the documentation, including La Fenaison à Saint‑Gingolphe (1792) and Les Environs de Cluses (1810) at the Petit Palais.
Among the clients and patrons cited are personalities and private collections such as Germaine de Staël, Prince Galitzine and Empress Joséphine, as well as Genevan collections such as Tronchin, Sellon and Eynard.
The bibliography and exhibition history complete the dossier: an early biographical notice (A. L. Vignier, 1832) and a modern monograph (Patrick‑André Guerretta, 2002) are cited, as is an exhibition of drawings organised by the Musée d’art et d’histoire in Geneva in 1969.
These references provide points of support for the attributions and the location of works in the Swiss and French public collections mentioned above.
Overall, the selected documentation presents Pierre‑Louis De la Rive as an important figure in Genevan landscape painting in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, recognised for landscape compositions, including Alpine views, and for an output extending to drawings, washes, sepia works and prints, with works held in public institutions in Switzerland and France.
