An Arcadian Landscape with Figures by Classical Ruins

Pierre Patel, a French painter and engraver and student of his father, the arcadian landscape painter. Pierre Antoine worked, as did his father, on the decoration of the Louvre. The son’s work is almost indistinguishable from that of his father. Pierre Patel, like his father, avoided the Académie Royale, but on July 23 1677, was admitted to the Académie de Saint-Luc – he was a successful artist.
In 1699 he was commissioned by the Jesuits of the convent of the Maison Profess to paint a series of landscapes representing the twelve months of the year, which were later reported to be at the church of Saint-Louis-la-Ceture. These included a winter scene, which has elements of fantasy, as in the later painting of Dawn (1705) now in the Beaux Arts Museum in Marseilles. Four of these paintings are now at the Louvre. They were confiscated during the French revolution but nine have since been recovered and are in various museums.
In his later years his style became more vigorous, freer and increasingly in tune with the eighteenth century aesthetic as displayed in a landscape in the Rennes Museé des Beaux Arts et Archeologie. The Galerie Borghese in Rome has gouaches by Pierre Patel dated to the last 15 years of his life, which was unfortunately cut short by a duel.