 After having been one of the top laureates of the school three times, he went to Paris to perfect his art.Welcomed into the workshop of Jean-Baptiste Marie Pierre, the royal painter, he won the 1759 1e prix de l'Académie Royale de peinture et de sculpture and set off for Italy.La Vallée-Poussin spent many years in Rome, where he was admitted to the Maltese order with the rank of "Cavalier Donato" (i.e.