[Gutenberg 47998] • Choffard

So little is known concerning Pierre-Philippe Choffard himself, that it is difficult to give many facts about his life or even to state with confidence that the year 1730 is that of the great artist's birth, since Heinecken gives 1729 and other writers mention 1736 as being the date. Pierre-Philippe's artistic talent was perceptible at a very early age, for when his father died, leaving wife and child impecunious, we hear that the little boy of ten was in the habit of amusing himself by making floral and conventional designs on the margins of his books, or more probably exercise-books, considering his parents had, evidently, never possessed large means and all literature was somewhat costly in those days. The widow, at that time, suffered business losses which caused her to take young Choffard away from the school he attended, and she wisely placed him in the studio of Dheulland who was an engraver of maps, plans, and other geometrical drawings. No doubt the rising genius found this kind of engraving very wearisome, and to make his work more congenial, he ornamented the borders, in which the maps were framed, with his own unique designs.