Claude Mellan (1598–1688)

• Was a French draughtsman, engraver, and painter.
• Mellan was born in Abbeville, the son of a customs official.
• His first known print (Préaud no. 288), made for a thesis in theology at the Collège des Mathurins, shows that he was in Paris by 1619.
• In 1624 Mellan went to Rome, where he studied engraving for a brief time with Francesco Villamena.
• He then studied under Simon Vouet.
• In 1637, after a period of time in Aix-en-Provence with Nicolas-Claude Fabri de Peiresc, he returned to Paris.
• During this later period in Paris, Mellan mostly engraved his own work.
• Anatole de Montaiglon catalogued 400 engravings by Mellan, and about 100 drawings are known.
• He died in Paris.
• Several of Mellan's lost paintings are known from his engravings of them, including Samson and Delilah (Préaud no. 5) and Saint John the Baptist in the Desert (Préaud no. 84).
• The displayed painting is a crop from Claude Mellan, Self Portrait, 1635.
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