Audran, the name of a celebrated family of French engravers, all descending from Louis Audran, an officer of the wolf-hunt under Henry IV., whose son Claude, born in 1592, settled at Lyons, became professor of engraving at the academy of that city, and died in 1677. Gerard, son of Claude, born at Lyons in 1640, studied three years at Rome under Carlo Ma-ratti, and acquired fame by his engraving of a portrait of Pope Clement IX. Colbert invited him to Paris, where he, with almost unparalleled ability, engraved for Louis XIV. the best pictures of Le Bran. He was also the author of a work on the proportions of the human figure, published in folio, with 27 plates of ancient statues. He died in Paris in 1703. Jean, brother of Gerard, born about 1667, had his studio in the Gobelins, and left a number of fine works of art, the most celebrated of which is his engraving of the Enlevement des Sabines, after Poussin. He died in 1756. Several others of the family attained considerable distinction.