François-Philippe Charpentier (b.

Blois Blois ( ; ) is a commune and the capital city of Loir-et-Cher department, in Centre-Val de Loire, France, on the banks of the lower Loire river between Orléans and Tours. With 45,898 inhabitants by 2019, Blois is the most populated city of the ...

, 1734; d. there 22 July 1817) was a French engraver and inventor. His father was a bookbinder, a poor man who reportedly made many sacrifices so that his son might attend the

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college at Blois; but after young Charpa few years he was compelled to leave and work to support himself. He chose to pursue the art of engraving, and entered the

atelier An atelier () is the private workshop or studio of a professional artist in the fine or decorative arts or an architect, where a principal master and a number of assistants, students, and apprentices can work together producing fine art or v ...

of a copperplate engraver in Paris. He made a number of inventions related to this field, the first being a purely mechanical process for engraving in

aquatint Aquatint is an intaglio printmaking technique, a variant of etching that produces areas of tone rather than lines. For this reason it has mostly been used in conjunction with etching, to give both lines and shaded tone. It has also been used h ...

(''gravure au lavis'') and in colour. After making many prints using the technique, he sold the secret. An engraver and patron of art, the Comte de Caylus, was one of the first to use the new machine.

Louis XVI Louis XVI (''Louis-Auguste''; ; 23 August 175421 January 1793) was the last King of France before the fall of the monarchy during the French Revolution. He was referred to as ''Citizen Louis Capet'' during the four months just before he was ...

gave him the appointment of "Royal Mechanician" (Mécanicien du Roi), and provided a studio for him in the gardens of the

Louvre The Louvre ( ), or the Louvre Museum ( ), is the world's most-visited museum, and an historic landmark in Paris, France. It is the home of some of the best-known works of art, including the ''Mona Lisa'' and the ''Venus de Milo''. A central l ...

, where he used a burning-mirror for melting metals without fire. He invented a fire-engine which was very widely adopted and, in 1771, a machine for drilling metals. Another invention for mechanical engraving was one which enabled lace-manufacturers to engrave in a few hours elaborate patterns and designs which formerly had required at least six months work of the burin. Charpentier's device for lighthouse-illumination so pleased Louis XVI that he offered the inventor a pension and a place as the head of the Department of Beacons, asking him to fix the price for his discovery. Charpentier reportedly refused the pension and suggested that the office be given to a younger man, saying that he would "prefer freedom in order to devote himself to the development of his ideas". He received a thousand crowns for his discovery. During the period of the

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he made an instrument for boring six gun-barrels at once, and a machine to saw six boards simultaneously. For these the government paid him 24,000 francs and named him director of the Atelier de prefectionnement, established at the Hôtel Montmorency. Charpentier received many offers from Russia and England for his labour-saving devices, but refused them all. He died as he had lived, in poverty. His chief extant works of his, all prints, are: ''Education of the Virgin'', after

François Boucher François Boucher ( , ; ; 29 September 1703 – 30 May 1770) was a French painter, draughtsman and etcher, who worked in the Rococo style. Boucher is known for his idyllic and voluptuous paintings on classical themes, decorative allegories ...

; ''Death of Archimedes'', after

Ciro Ferri Ciro Ferri (1634 – 13 September 1689) was an Italian Baroque sculptor and painter, the chief pupil and successor of Pietro da Cortona. He was born in Rome, where he began working under Cortona and with a team of artists in the extensive fresc ...

; ''Shepherdess'', after Nicolaes Berchem; ''Descent from the Cross'', in colour, after Vanloo. Charpentier was the father of the sculptor

Julie Charpentier Julie Charpentier (1770–1843) was a French sculptor. Charpentier was born in Paris, the daughter of François-Philippe Charpentier, ''mécanicien du roi'', and grew up in the Louvre in government-owned lodgings. From her father she learned draw ...

References

;Attribution * Cites: **BRYAN, ''Dict. of Painters and Engravers'' (London, 1903).

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Further reading