Vallin de la Mothe graduated in 1750 in Paris, soon with the help of his cousin Jacques-François Blondel he entered the French Academy in Rome.
According to his letters of that period, Vallin de la Mothe had a great interest to Andrea Palladio and Vincenzo Scamozzi.
Beginning in 1750, Vallin de la Mothe spent two years studying at the French Academy in Rome, though not as an official pensionnaire.
[3][1] In 1759, Vallin de la Mothe accepted an offer extended through the Russian ambassador Aleksei Petrovich Bestuzhev-Ryumin, prompted by Blondel, to create Imperial Academy of Arts in St. Petersburg and teach architecture there.
[2] In St. Petersburg, Vallin de la Mothe adjusted Blondel's designs for a pet project of Shuvalov, the Imperial Academy of Arts (1765–72),[5] in the form of a large open square with a circular central court.