1000 Museums

(1636 – 1697)

Claudine Bouzonnet-Stella was a French engraver working under her uncle Jacques Stella. She was born in Lyon as the daughter of a goldsmith but studied under her uncle in Paris at his workshop. Claudine staffed the workshop along with her brothers and sisters, with Claudine being the eldest. After her uncle died in 1657, and at the age of 21, Claudine became the head of the family workshop and was granted the unique privilege to publish her uncle\’s designs exclusively. At this time, she was also named co-owner of her uncle\’s apartments in the Louvre alongside her brother. These apartments are where she and her siblings were living. While much of her work was engraved after her uncle\’s drawings or Nicholas Poussin, a close friend of her uncle, by 1667, she began independent books as an artist. While she worked primarily in printmaking, she also gained success as a painter.