The Stella studio
Jacques Stella, who died without ever marrying, was profoundly attached to his family. During his lifetime he established a veritable family studio, which continued to engrave his compositions. The painter's sister, Madeleine, married a goldsmith, Etienne Bouzonnet. This union was expected to produce the artistic heirs to the great painter - his nephews - who would add the name Stella to their Bouzonnet heritage. While Antoine enjoyed a certain reputation, it is Claudine Bouzonnet Stella, the youngest of his sisters, aged twenty-one at the time of Jacques Stella's death, who remains the most famous of the siblings.
Highly esteemed in her lifetime, she kept up the lodging at the Louvre left by her uncle until her death in 1697. Working with her two sisters, she used the drawings left for this purpose by the great master. She is responsible for engraving the Jeux et plaisirs de l'enfance (Games and pleasures of childhood), the Pastorales (Pastorals), La Vie de la Vierge (The Life of the Virgin) and the Passion du Christ (Passion of Christ). She was also recently credited with the invention of a second series of La Vie de la Vierge (The Life of the Virgin).
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