François Denis Née (1732-1817)

"François Denis Née (1732 – 19 August 1817) was a French engraver. He was born and died in Paris.

He trained under Jacques-Philippe Le Bas and opened a shop with Louis-Joseph Masquelier the Elder in the 1770s on rue des Francs-Bourgeois, moving to rue de Fleurus after the French Revolution, where they produced lithographs.

He is most notable for his engravings of the works of Jean-Baptiste Lallemand as well as his participation in Les Conquêtes de l'Empereur de Chine, a major work commissioned by the Jesuits Jean-Denis Attiret, Giuseppe Castiglione, Ignaz Sichelbart and Jean Damascene. This was a series of 12 complementary engravings coordinated by Charles-Nicolas Cochin, with copperplates engraved in Paris between 1772 and 1774 at the expense of the Qianlong sovereign." - (en.wikipedia.org 24.05.2021)