Biography

French printmaker, print publisher and print-seller. Early in his life his family removed to Paris. His father, Jean-François Cars (1661-1730), an engraver and publisher, was his first teacher. He next studied painting under Joseph Christophe (1662-1748) and François Lemoyne and then completed his studies in engraving under Nicolas-Henry Tardieu. In 1729 he was approved (agréé) by the Académie Royale and on 31 December 1733 was received (reçu), on presentation of the engraved portraits of Michel Anguier after Gabriel Revel and of Sébastien Bourdon after Hyacinthe Rigaud. From 1750 he gradually abandoned engraving in favour of print-selling, particularly those of his father's collection. In 1757 he was appointed a Conseiller.

His work included nearly 190 prints; he engraved portraits, historical and mythological subjects after Lemoyne, such as Hercules and Omphale and the Bath of Iris, and genre subjects after Watteau, such as Figures de différents caractères and Fêtes vénitiennes (generally considered Cars's masterpiece). He also engraved after Chardin (e.g. the Bird-song Organ) and Greuze, among others. Cars illustrated Molière's Oeuvres with engravings after Boucher (1734) and Jean de la Fontaine's Fables choisies after Oudry (1755-59). He also contributed prints to the Galerie de Versailles (1753).

He was among the best reproductive engravers of his time; his design was masterly and his handling fluid and expressive, and such contemporaries as Charles-Nicolas Cochin le fils and Louis-Simon Lempereur stressed that he was an interpreter and not merely a copyist. His numerous pupils included Jacques-Firmin Beauvarlet, Jean-Jacques Flipart, François Flipart and Augustin de Saint-Aubin. His portrait by Cochin was engraved in 1750 by Saint-Aubin; his portrait by Jean-Baptiste Perronneau was engraved in 1759 by Simon-Charles Miger (1736-1820).