He better known as Piette was a pupil of Thomas Couture and a fellow-student of Manet's. Piette began to paint with a rather dark palette. He became a close friend of Pissarro, posing for him in 1861 ; in 1864 Pissarro joined him at his farm at Monifoucault in Brittany; it is here that he took refuge during the war of 1870. In 1875 Piette exhibited at the Salon for the first time, when he showed The flowering hawthorn. Pissarro taught him to use lighter brighter colours and to paint out of doors, and in 1877 he joined in the third Impressionist exhibition; several pictures of his were hung after his death at their fourth exhibition in 1879. Among his paintings are The Grove, Riverside Scene, several Views of Monifoucault and The Hermitage garden at Pontoise, the latter being a gouache that had formerly belonged to Camille Pissarro and was sold when his belongings were dispersed on 3 December 1928.

Based on Phaidon encyclopedia of Impressionism, Maurice Serullaz, Phaidon, 1978