AUDRAN, CLAUDE, a French engraver, the first of the celebrated artists of that name, was the son of Lewis Audran, an officer belonging to the wolf-hunters, in the reign of Henry IV. of France; and was born at Paris in 1592. He never made any great progress in that art; so that his prints are held in little or no estimation. Yet though he acquired no great reputation by his own works, it was no small honour to him to be the father of three great artists, Germain, Claude, and Girard; the last of whom has immortalized the name of the family. Claude Audran retired from Paris to Lyons, where he resided, and died in 1677.