Claudine Bouzonnet Stella (1636-1697)

• Was a French engraver.
• She was born at Lyon in 1636, the daughter of Étienne Bouzonnet, a goldsmith, and his wife, Madeleine Stella.
• She studied art in Paris under her uncle, Jacques Stella.
• Jacques Stella had decided to set up a workshop to produce prints after his designs.
• To staff it he brought in his sister's children, Claudine, Antoinette, Francoise and Antoine, all of whom moved from Lyon to live in his apartments in the Louvre.
• It is, however, likely that Claudine Bouzonnet-Stella also had some training in engraving from another practitioner.
• After Jacques Stella's death, she became head of the workshop, was granted exclusive rights by the king to publish prints after Stella's designs.
• In the same year she issued Les Jeux et Plaisirs de l'Enfance, a set of 50 plates which she had engraved herself.
• In 1667 she published Les Pastorales, a set of 16 prints of rural subjects.
• She also produced prints after works by Nicolas Poussin, who had been a close friend of her uncle.
• Her technique combined both etching and engraving.
• She delineated the other extremities with great taste and correctness.
• She died in Paris in 1697.
• The displayed painting is a crop from: After Jacques Stella, Claudine Bouzonnet Stella, My fruit is better than gold and precious stones, c. 1660s.
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