In 1762, Etienne de Lavallée became a fellow of the Académie de France in Rome and soon came to specialise in Aracadian landscapes entirely in the manner of his great model Nicolas Poussin (1594-1665). He took his admiration so far as to add Poussin’s name to his own during this period.
In 1774, Lavallée returned to Paris, where a few years later he was accepted as a member of the Académie Royale. He nonetheless remained true to the classical style he had developed in Italy, which also determined his choice of subject matter. Only his designs for the tapestry works in Beauvais after 1785 depict more exotic material.