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**Louis-Jacques Cathelin (1738–1804) was a French engraver renowned for his delicate and precise portrait engravings that captured the likenesses of Enlightenment-era figures.** Born in Paris, he trained under the celebrated engraver Jacques-Philippe Le Bas, becoming one of his most accomplished pupils.
Cathelin specialized in small-scale portraits of historical personages, literary figures, and artists, working primarily in the refined tradition of 18th-century French engraving. His technique emphasized skill and delicacy, placing him alongside contemporaries such as Le Mire, Ficquet, and Gaucher. He was agréé by the Académie Royale in 1774 and received as a full member in 1777, submitting a portrait of the Abbé Terray after Alexandre Roslin as his reception piece.
Among his notable works are engravings after prominent painters, including *Louis XV* and *Joseph Vernet* (1770) after Louis Michel Van Loo, as well as portraits of Marie Antoinette after Jean-Martial Frédou and others after artists such as Drouais, Nattier, and Ducreux. He also produced subjects like *La Nouvelle Affligeante* after Wille and *The Four Hours of the Day* after Vernet.
Cathelin died in Paris in 1804. His engravings remain valued for preserving the visual record of 18th-century French intellectual and courtly life through their meticulous reproduction of original paintings.