Pierre Louis de la Rive was born in Geneva on October 21, 1753 and died on October 7, 1817. He gave up his studies as a lawyer to become a painter. Pierre worked as a copyist of Dutch and Flemish paintings to develop his skills at the start of his creative period. He completed classical training in Mannheim, before studying at Dresden’s Academy between 1777 and 1779. De La Rive undertook studies of nature in Crissier, near Lausanne, in 1780, and then painted in Rome, under the influence of Jean-Pierre Saint-Ours. From 1786 on, he worked independently as a painter of landscapes and animals, based in Geneva. In addition to his well-known images of Mont Blanc, his naturalistic works primarily feature themes drawn from Switzerland,...