Girard Audran

(b Lyon, 2 Aug 1640; d Paris, 25 July 1703). Engraver, brother of (1) Claude Audran II. He was deservedly the most celebrated member of the family. Even though he first trained with his father, a mediocre artist, he made remarkably rapid progress: thus, in 1666 he engraved, in a very large format, the Triumph of Constantine and the Battle of Constantine against Maxentius after Charles Le Brun. As a consequence, he was sent that same year to Italy, where he perfected his skills, chiefly in Carlo Maratti's studio. Most particularly, he executed there (1668) prints after Pietro da Cortona's suites of David and Goliath and the Story of Aeneas, as well as prints after Raphael and Domenichino. On returning to France, Audran was welcomed by Le Brun, who obtained lodgings for him in the Gobelins and set him to reproduce his Battles of Alexander the Great in a large format. Audran carried out this enormous task, which earned him more than 10,000 francs, between 1672 and 1678; it remains his masterpiece. In 1674, when he had only just completed the first two compositions, he was admitted (re?u) to the Acad?mie Royale, becoming a 'conseiller' in 1681. He settled c. 1677 in the Rue St Jacques, Paris, where he opened a print-selling and print-publishing business at the sign of Les Deux Piliers d'or. He published not only his own engravings but also those of the best of his contemporaries. After his death in 1703 his widow, sister of the painter Louis Licherie (1629-87), carried on his business, but in 1718 Fran?ois Ch?reau acquired the sign.

Part of the Audran family

See the Abbreviations for further details.