Explore: Jean Baptiste Claude Chatelain

(c.1710 - c.1771)

Draughtsman, etcher and line engraver Jean Baptiste Claude Chatelain (real name Phillipe) was a Frenchman, born in London. He fought at Flanders before specialising in landscape and topographical views. He made prints after works by 17th-century painters as well as contemporary artists, and also after his own drawings. Chatelain worked in London for the engraver and printseller John Boydell (1720-1804), for whom he engraved works by Claude and Poussin, and also English views. He produced some 50 views in and around London. Chatelain’s unique style of engraving and etching has led to his plates being described as both ‘lazy’ and as demonstrating ‘masterly wildness’.