Jean-Baptiste Villis

Jean-Baptiste Villis (Willis) was born in Guebwiller (Haut-Rhin department) in 1765. He was the son of Jean-Jacques Willis, a tanner, and Françoise Sieffert. On January 20, 1798, he enrolled at the Ecole royale de peinture et de sculpture as a student of Jean-Michel Diebold. He died on June 10, 1814, in Guebwiller at the age of 49. Villis is documented in Basel, Bern, Belfort, and Vesoul. We would like to express our sincere thanks to Henry-Noel Canival, Paris, for his research on this hitherto unknown artist, and to Benoît Lorenzini for further details on the artist's activity.