Biography

French painter. He was the illegitimate son of a white government official in Guadeloupe and a freed black slave. Although his real name was Guillon, as the third child of the family he called himself Letiers, Lethiers and finally, from 1799, when recognized by his father, Lethière. While accompanying his father to France in 1774 Lethière entered the studio of Jean-Baptiste Descamps at the Académie in Rouen, where he won a drawing prize for an académie in 1776.

In 1777 he went to Paris and enrolled at the Académie Royale de Peinture et de Sculpture, studying under Gabriel-François Doyen and winning a first-class medal in July 1782. Lacking influential friends and patrons, before the Prix de Rome of 1784 Lethière attempted to attract support by writing to Mme de la Palum (related by marriage to the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Charles Gravier, Comte de Vergennes), asking her to intercede in his favour with the Premier Peintre du Roi, Jean-Baptiste Pierre). In the Prix, Lethière won second prize with the Woman of Canaan at the Feet of Christ (Angers, Musée des Beaux-Arts). With its theatrical gestures and delicacy of form, the picture is reminiscent of the religious works of both Doyen and Joseph-Marie Vien.

His entry for the Prix de Rome in 1785, Horatius Killing his Sister (Providence, Museum of Art, Rhode Island School of Design), displays many changes from that of the previous year, and Lethière turned to a Neo-classical composition deriving from Pierre Peyron and David. He was again unsuccessful in the competition, probably due to some kind of plot or favouritism concerning the eventual winner, Fréderic Jean-Baptiste Desmarais (1756-1813).

In 1786 no prizes at all were awarded because the Académie jury found a disturbing 'similarity of styles' between the entries due to the overwhelming influence of David. Lethière had gravitated towards the Davidian style, and the poet and critic Jean-Baptiste Publicola Chaussard (1766-1823), in his Pausanias français (1806), wrote that, 'Although M Le Thièrs had begun by being the pupil of M Doyen, the school of David claimed him. Messieurs Le Thièrs and Drouais were the first who walked with honour along the paths opened by this great master.' Lethière's painting for the Prix in 1786 is lost, but although he did not win, the diplomat and friend of Louis XVI, Armand-Marc, Comte de Montmorin, persuaded the Académie that he was worthy of the Roman pension. Lethière arrived in Rome and while there painted a copy of Ribera's Deposition (Dijon, Musée des Beaux-Arts). (He also became one of the few friends of the difficult Jean-Germain Drouais.)

Lethière remained in Rome for several years, and returned to Paris in 1791 to open a painting studio in direct competition with Jacques-Louis David. In 1818 Lethière was finally elected and also awarded the Légion d'honneur, and a year later he became a professor at the École des Beaux-Arts.