Background
Laporte was born in London, England, to a French family of Huguenot origins, and studied art under John James Barralet.
Laporte was born in London, England, to a French family of Huguenot origins, and studied art under John James Barralet.
He became a drawing-master at the Addiscombe Military Seminary, Surrey. He also painted in oils. He published: "Characters of Trees, (1798–1801), "Progressive Lessons sketched from Nature," (1804), and "The Progress of a Water-colour Drawing", and, in conjunction with West F Wells, executed a set of seventy-two etchings, entitled "A Collection of Prints illustrative of English Scenery, from the Drawings and Sketches of Thomas Gainsborough" (1819).
His "Perdita discovered by the Old Shepherd" was engraved by Bartolozzi, and his "Millbank on the River Thames" by Francis Jukes.
Laporte died in London on 8 July 1839, aged 78. Some of his works were engraved in the "New Sporting Magazine." Laporte held the appointment of animal painter to the King of Hanover.
He died suddenly at 13 Norfolk Square, London on 23 October 1873.
From 1785 he contributed landscapes to the Royal Academy and British Institution exhibitions in London, and was an original member of the short-lived society "The Associated Artists in Watercolours," from which he retired in 1811. Laporte"s daughter, Mission M. A. Laporte, exhibited portraits and fancy subjects at the Academy and the British Institution from 1813 to 1822. In 1835 she was elected a member of the Institute of Painters in Watercolours, but withdrew in 1846.