Nicolas Henri Tardieu
NicolasHenri Tardieu, called the Tardieu the elder, was a prominent French engraver, known for his sensitive reproductions of Antoine Watteaus paintings. He was appointed graveur du roi to King Louis XV of France. His second wife, MarieAnne Horthemels, came from a family that included engravers and painters. She is known as an engraver in her own right. NicolasHenri and MarieAnne Tardieu had many descendants who were noted artists, most of them engravers.
NicolasHenri Tardieu was born in Paris onJanuary 1674 and was baptized three days later. He was the son of Nicolas Tardieu, bourgeois de Paris, and Marie Aymie . His father was a boilermaker, as were his two younger brothers. Possibly NicolasHenri used scraps of copper from his fathers workshop for his early engravings. He was a student of Pierre Lepautre, Grard Audran and Benoit Audran. Tardieu married LouiseFranoise Aveline, daughter of Jean Aveline and a relative of the engraver Pierre Aveline, onSeptember 1706 in the church of SaintJacquesduHautPas. LouiseFranoise was the widow of Laurent Baron, the commissioner of the oratory. Louise had two children from her first marriage, and had just one with Tardieu, Denis, born onAugust 1707. She died onNovember 1708.
Source: Wikipedia