Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Violet, Pierre
VIOLET, PIERRE (1749–1819), miniature-painter, born in France in 1749, left Paris during the French revolution after etching portraits of some of the members of the National Assembly in 1789. In that or the following year he settled in London, and in 1790 he exhibited eleven miniatures at the Royal Academy, among them being a portrait of Marie-Antoinette. He continued to exhibit miniatures, and from 1798 onwards drawings of domestic and fancy subjects every year till 1819. His portraits of Louis XVI and Marie-Antoinette, 1790, and George, prince of Wales, 1791, his professional card, 1794, and several fancy subjects, were engraved by Bartolozzi. Other portraits engraved from Violet's miniatures are those of Mrs. Piozzi by Bovi, and Gaetano Bartolozzi by Tomkins. A feeble set of etchings of domestic subjects, worked over in stipple by Violet himself, was published by Moltens in 1810. Before he left France he published a treatise on miniature-painting. A supplement, containing the author's portrait, was published at Rome in 1788, and the treatise was translated into German in 1795. Violet died at 1 Charlotte Street, Fitzroy Square, London, on 9 Dec. 1819.
[Redgrave's Dict. of Artists; Gent. Mag. 1819, ii. 571.]