François Chauveau was a French painter and engraver.

Life

The second son of the impoverished noble Lubin Chauveau and of Marguerite de Fleurs, he studied in the studio of Laurent de La Hyre

Laurent de La Hyre

Laurent de La Hyre was a French Baroque painter, born in Paris.La Hyre was greatly influenced by the work of Italian artists who came to Paris. He became a pupil of Georges Lallemand and studied the works of Primaticcio at Fontainebleau, but never visited Italy...

 and specialised in etching

Etching

Etching is the process of using strong acid or mordant to cut into the unprotected parts of a metal surface to create a design in intaglio in the metal...

. He married Marguerite Roger on 8 February 1652 and Louis XIV gave him a pension and the title of Graveur du Roi ainsi in 1662. Made a counsellor to the Académie royale de peinture et de sculpture on 14 April 1663, he died in 1676.

Notable for his great culture and imagination, he was one of the four French engravers cited by Charles Perrault

Charles Perrault

Charles Perrault was a French author who laid the foundations for a new literary genre, the fairy tale, with his works derived from pre-existing folk tales. The best known include Le Petit Chaperon rouge , Cendrillon , Le Chat Botté and La Barbe bleue...

 in his "Hommes illustres". Chauveau left nearly 1,600 works (frontispices, vignettes...), including illustrations for works by Mademoiselle de Scudéry (he engraved the famous Map of Tendre

Map of Tendre

The Map of Tendre was a French map of an imaginary land called Tendre produced by several hands . It appeared as an engraving in the first part of Madeleine de Scudéry's 1654-61 novel Clélie...

and the frontispiece for her Artamène

Artamène

Artamène, or Cyrus the Great is a novel in ten volumes by siblings Madeleine and Georges de Scudéry. At over 2,100,000 words, it is considered the longest novel ever written, with the possible exception of Henry Darger's unpublished The Story of the Vivian Girls....

), Scarron, Molière

Molière

Jean-Baptiste Poquelin, known by his stage name Molière, was a French playwright and actor who is considered to be one of the greatest masters of comedy in Western literature...

, Racine

Jean Racine

Jean Racine , baptismal name Jean-Baptiste Racine , was a French dramatist, one of the "Big Three" of 17th-century France , and one of the most important literary figures in the Western tradition...

 and Boileau

Boileau

Boileau can refer to:Persons:*Boileau-Narcejac, pen name of Pierre Boileau and Pierre Ayraud, also known as Thomas Narcejac, French writers of police stories*Nicolas Boileau-Despréaux, 17th century French writer...

. La Fontaine

Jean de La Fontaine

Jean de La Fontaine was the most famous French fabulist and one of the most widely read French poets of the 17th century. He is known above all for his Fables, which provided a model for subsequent fabulists across Europe and numerous alternative versions in France, and in French regional...

 summoned him to illustrate the first six books of his fables. He had many students, including Nicolas Guérard, Jean-Baptiste Broebes and Edward Davis

Edward Davies

Edward Davies or Davis may refer to:*Edward Davies , Welsh writer and poet involved with the re-introduction of the drudic tradition*Edward Davies , United States Representative...

. His children included René, Évrard

Évrard Chauveau

Évrard Chauveau, a French painter, the son of François Chauveau, was born in Paris in 1660, and studied under his father and Henri Lefebvre. He was largely employed at Gaillon by Archbishop Colbert, and in 1695 went to Sweden, where he painted many ceilings and decorations for the palaces of the...

and Louis Chauveau.