Piat Sauvage

Piat Jospeh Sauvage was a Belgian painter. (Tournai 19 January 1744 - 11 June 1818)

Piat's father, Antoine, was a glass cutter. It was in his father's factory where Piat worked until the age of 17, at that time completing his technical schooling in drawing. He would go on to improve his artistic education at the Anvers Académy under the direction of Martin Joseph Geeraerts, an expert in grisaille and historic paintings..

He worked for a time in Brussels while it was under the control of the Habsburgs. He then joined the Saint Luc Academy in Paris, and in 1774 prepared 9 paintings including the grisaille bas-relief La Mort de Germanicus "(Germanicus death)".

Sauvage was accepted into the "l'Acadèmie royal de Paris" after he produced a certain painting of round-table covered with an embroidered cloth on which stood a child-statue, a helmet, books, a violin, and other various items. This canvas is at the "Palais de Fontainebleau" which also possesses other "dessus-de-porte" decorative works by this artist.

As his fame grew, he was chosen as the official painter of the Prince de Condé, and then by Louis XIV and the Royal Family. During this period, he depicted Marie-Antoinette, and produced paintings for the chapel of Saint-Cloud among other works.

His function as Royal artist did not keep him from joining the side of the French Revolution. His painting surprisingly did not slow down during this period of political upheaval.

From 1804 to 1807, he painted porcelain figurines for the famous Manufacture nationale de Sèvres.

In 1808 he came back to Tournai to became the director of the Academy of Drawing. Until 1817, he succeeded in this role while famous artists such as Antoine Payen studied there. He also painted the "Sept Sacrements", or Seven Sacraments, in the choir of the Tournai cathedral in order to replace the superb tapisseries stolen by the french Jacobins during the revolution.