The son and pupil of
Frans Eisen, he was born at
Valenciennes. In 1741, he went to Paris, and in the following year entered the studio of
Le Bas. His talent and his sparkling wit gained him admission to the court, where he became painter and
draftsman to the King, and drawing-master to
Madame de Pompadour. He afterwards fell into disgrace, and in 1777 retired to Brussels, where he died in poverty in 1778. His paintings are not without merit, but it is as a designer of illustrations and vignettes for books that he is best known. The most notable of these are the designs for the
Fermiers généraux edition of the
Contes of
La Fontaine, published at Amsterdam in 1762;
Ovid's
Metamorphoses, 1767–71; the
Henriade of
Voltaire, 1770; the
Baisers of
Dorat, 1770; and the
Vies des Peintres hollandais et flamands of
Descamps, published in 1751–63. He etched a few plates of the
Virgin, a
St. Jerome, St. Ely preaching, etc. There are pictures by him in the Museums of
Bordeaux,
Alençon, and
Bourg, and even at
Nordnorsk Kunstmuseum in Tromsø, Norway. == Gallery ==