Guillaume Lethière, Académie, 1776, red chalk, graphite, heightened with white. Bibliothèque municipale, Rouen, France, Collection Hédou, 14748

In September 1774, at the age of fourteen, Lethière traveled to France with his father by way of Bordeaux. Upon arriving in France, Lethière enrolled at the École de dessin (drawing school) in Rouen, a public school for the training of artists, artisans, manual laborers, and technicians. He quickly distinguished himself there, winning successive drawing prizes for his académies, or figure studies. Lethière’s quick facility in drawing suggests that he may have already begun his artistic training in Guadeloupe, where several itinerant European artists offered instruction. Lethière’s early academic prizes helped him to secure a place at the Académie royale de peinture et de sculpture (Royal Academy of Painting and Sculpture) in Paris—the preeminent training ground for ambitious history painters. History painting, or the painting of historical, mythological, and biblical subjects, was regarded as the highest genre within the French academic system. 

By 1784, Lethière began vying for the Prix de Rome, a highly competitive history painting competition that offered its recipient an opportunity to study at the Académie de France in Rome. Lethière placed second that year and competed again in the two subsequent competitions. Through the continued support of powerful allies, some with connections to the Caribbean, he was awarded the coveted spot in 1786.