Etcher, draughtsman and painter, part of a French family of artists. The sons of the etcher Franois Chauveau (1613-1676) included three painters, Louis Chauveau (c. 1656-after 1695), Charles Chauveau (b 1658/9; fl c. 1683) and Evrard Chauveau (1660-1793) and also one sculptor, Ren Chauveau (1663-1722).
Franois Chauveau s family belonged to the minor nobility; a decline in its fortunes obliged him to earn his living as an artist. Although he had been a pupil of Laurent de La Hyre,
he forsook painting (except as an amateur), devoting himself wholly to printmaking; he became one of the most prolific etchers of his time, executing, in particular, a great many vignettes for books. He had an extraordinary facility in composition; his own oeuvre numbers more than 1600 prints, and he made some 1400 drawings for other printmakers. He was the 17th century s most popular illustrator of fiction and plays.
In 1663 Chauveau was admitted (reu) to the Acadmie Royale and made a councillor. For Louis XIV he engraved (1664-70) the Carrousel de 1662: the quality of his work earned him the title of Graveur du Roi and a pension of 600 livres. He also set out to engrave, after Eustache Le Sueur,
a series of the Life of St Bruno but died before finishing the work, which was completed by Sbastien Leclerc the Elder.
The inventory made after Chauveau s death mentions various paintings by him.
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