Jean-Baptiste Vallin de la Mothe

Who was Jean-Baptiste Vallin de la Mothe?

Jean-Baptiste Michel Vallin de la Mothe was a French architect whose major career was spent in St. Petersburg, where he became court architect to Catherine II..

He was born in Angoulême, a cousin of the architect-teacher Jacques-François Blondel, under whom he is supposed to have studied, Beginning in 1750, Vallin de la Mothe spent two years studying at the French Academy in Rome, though not as an official pensionnaire. On his return to Paris he was one of the architects who presented projects for Place Lous XV