PILLEMENT, JEAN (1727–1808), painter, was born at Lyons in 1727, and there commenced his artistic studies, which he completed in Paris. He was for some years employed as a designer in the Gobelins manufactory, and before 1757 came to England, where he resided for some years. Pillement painted landscapes, marine pieces, and genre subjects, which he treated in a theatrical and artificial style, with bright colours and strong effects of light and shade. He worked to some extent in oil, but earned his reputation by his highly finished drawings in crayons and gouache, which, though mainly pasticci, derived from prints after Wouwermans and other Dutch artists, were suited to the taste of the day, and gained much admiration. Charles Leviez, a French dancing-master who had established himself in London and dealt largely in prints and drawings, was an extensive purchaser of Pillement's works, and employed Canot, Woollett, Ravenet, and other able engravers to reproduce them; the plates, two hundred in number, were all published in London between 1757 and 1764, and reissued in Paris by Leviez in a folio volume in 1767. Pillement exhibited with the Society of Artists in 1760, 1761, and 1773.
In the latter year he announced the sale of his pictures and drawings preparatory to his departure for Avignon on account of his health, but he probably revisited England, as he was a contributor to the Free Society's exhibitions in 1779 and 1780. He travelled much about Europe, and the latter part of his life was spent at Lyons, where he died in poverty on 26 April 1808. Examples of Pillement's work are in the Louvre and the galleries at Florence and Madrid. The engravings from his designs include ‘The Four Times of the Day,’ by Canot and Elliot; ‘The Four Seasons,’ by Canot, Woollett, and Mason; ‘La Chasse au Sanglier,’ by Woollett; ‘La Bonne Pêche’ and ‘La Mauvaise Pêche,’ by P. Benazech; ‘Le Gazette de Londres,’ by S. F. Ravenet; four views of the environs of Flushing, by Canot; ‘The Shepherdess’ and ‘The Villagers,’ by W. Smith; and several sets of plates of flowers and decorative Chinese subjects, by J. J. Avril and others. Pillement himself etched some groups of flowers. He held the appointments of painter to Queen Marie Antoinette and Stanislas, king of Poland. His son, Victor Pillement, was an able draughtsman and engraver.
[Edwards's Anecdotes of Painting; Redgrave's Dict. of Artists; Chavignerie's Dict. des Artistes de l'École Française; Bréghot du Lut's Biographie Lyonnaise, 1839; Nagler's Künstler-Lexikon; Graves's Dict. of Artists, 1760–1893.]
PILON, FREDERICK (1750–1788), actor and dramatist, was born in Cork in 1750. After receiving a fairly good education in his native city, he was sent to Edinburgh University to study medicine, but he took to the stage instead. He first appeared at the Edinburgh Theatre as Oroonoko, but with small success, and consequently joined an inferior strolling company, with which he remained for some years. He finally drifted to London, where Griffin the bookseller employed him on the ‘Morning Post.’ After Griffin's death had deprived him of this position, he seems to have worked as an obscure literary hack until he began to write for the stage. He was soon employed with some regularity at Covent Garden Theatre. There, on 4 Nov. 1778, ‘The Invasion, or a Trip to Brighthelmstone’—‘a moderate farce,’ according to Genest—was performed, with Lee Lewis in the chief part (Cameleon) on 4 Nov. 1778. It was repeated twenty-four times during the season, and was several times revived. ‘The Liverpool Prize’ followed at the same theatre on 22 Feb. 1779, with Quick in the chief part. ‘Illumination, or the Glazier's Conspiracy,’ a prelude, suggested by the illuminations on Admiral Keppel's acquittal, was acted on 12 April 1779 for Lee Lewis's benefit. ‘The Device, or the Deaf Doctor,’ when first produced on 27 Sept. 1779, met with great opposition, but, revived with alteration as ‘The Deaf Lover,’ on 2 Feb. 1780, it achieved some success; ‘The Siege of Gibraltar,’ a musical farce (25 April 1780), celebrated Rodney's victory; ‘The Humours of an Election,’ a farce (19 Oct. 1780), satirised electoral corruption; ‘Thelyphthora, or more Wives than One,’ a farce, satirising the work of the name by Martin Madan [q. v.], was produced on 8 March 1781, and was damned the second night; ‘Aerostation, or the Templar's Stratagem’ (29 Oct. 1784), dealt with the rage of the day for balloons; ‘Barataria, or Sancho turned Governor’ (29 March 1785), was adapted from D'Urfey. Meanwhile Pilon deserted Covent Garden for Drury Lane, where he produced, on 18 May 1782, ‘The Fair American,’ a comic opera, which was not very skilfully plagiarised from the ‘Adventures of Five Hours.’ Pilon's last piece, a comedy, ‘He would be a Soldier,’ after being rejected by Colman, was performed at Covent Garden on 18 Nov. 1786, and
