Paul Adolphe Rajon (1843–1888) was a distinguished French painter and etcher renowned for his exquisite portrait prints. Born in Dijon as the youngest of three children to hairdresser Jean Marie Rajon and shop girl Caroline Jaugey, he began his artistic path early. At age 14, he apprenticed as a portrait retoucher for his brother-in-law, photographer Pierre Joseph Meurisse, in Metz. From 1859 to 1860, he attended evening art courses at the Metz School of Design under Auguste Migette, forging a friendship with fellow student Émile Boilvin. In 1862, the pair relocated to Paris, where they enrolled at the École des Beaux-Arts, studying painting under Isidore-Alexandre-Augustin Pils and printmaking with masters Léon Gaucherel and Léopold Flameng.

Rajon's career flourished amid the vibrant Parisian art scene, bolstered by friendships with Philippe Burty, Félix Bracquemond, and Louis-Charles-Auguste Steinheil. He debuted at the Paris Salon in 1865, earning medals in 1869, 1870, and 1873, as well as at the 1878 Exposition Universelle. Interrupted by the Franco-Prussian War, he served in the National Guard's Tirailleurs de la Seine battalion, fighting at La Malmaison. Post-war, he specialized in etching, dividing his time from 1872 between Paris and London at the invitation of figures like P.G. Hamerton. There, he exhibited at the Royal Academy and contributed to Hamerton's *The Portfolio*, while American dealer Frederick Keppel promoted his works across the Atlantic. His style blended academic precision with a delicate, nuanced line, capturing the likenesses of intellectuals and artists in the etching tradition.

Among his major works are the etched *Portrait of Félix Bracquemond* (1878), *Portrait of Henry Walters* (1886), *Portrait of William T. Walters* (1887), and *Portrait of Charles Darwin* (c. 1880), alongside depictions of Ivan Turgenev, Théophile Gautier, John Stuart Mill, Alfred, Lord Tennyson, George Eliot, and a 1883 sketch of James McNeill Whistler. Commissions from *L'Art*, *Gazette des beaux-arts*, and Goupil & Co. underscored his versatility in reproducing Old Masters and contemporaries.

Rajon's legacy endures in prestigious collections, including the National Portrait Gallery in London, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Art Institute of Chicago, and the Smithsonian American Art Museum. Though plagued by fragile health, he produced prolifically until pneumonia claimed him on June 8, 1888, at Auvers-sur-Oise, cared for by friend Frank Dicey. F.G. Stephens memorialized him in *Twelve Etchings Contributed to the Portfolio* (1889), cementing his reputation as a virtuoso etcher whose portraits bridged French academicism and international acclaim.