Biography of Jean-Charles Pellerin
Jean-Charles Pellerin (1756-1836) was a French designer, illustrator and printer. He is famous for the Epinal images that he composed during the Revolution and that he printed himself from 1800 in his establishment, the Imagerie Pellerin.
Imagerie Pellerin had its moment of glory by publishing numerous sheets of paper dolls, fashion dolls to cut out, created by the English and printed on paper with a removable wardrobe attached to the figurine by folding legs.
His images enjoyed considerable success throughout France. During the Restoration, he retired from business and left the management of his company to his son Nicolas.
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Son of Nicolas Pellerin, a "master card maker", that is to say a manufacturer of playing cards from Épinal, originally from Mauvages in the Meuse, Jean-Charles Pellerin was born in Épinal in 1756.
Succeeding his father, he took over the management of the "Fabrique de Pellerin" in 1773. From 1796, after having been a watchmaker, he expanded his business and created the "Imagerie Pellerin", based on colored wood engraving with stencils. From 1800, he transformed an initially artisanal business into a real image industry, which then took the name Imagerie d'Épinal. He produced religious images or for almanacs, or on current themes, feats of arms, legends, tales, etc. These images were then peddled from town to town.
He handed over his business in 1822 to his son Nicolas Pellerin, born in 1793, and his son-in-law Pierre-Germain Vadet, who abandoned wood engraving in favor of lithography from 1840. The business was then taken over by the son of the former, Charles-Nicolas Pellerin (1827-1887), from 1853, and the printing works then employed 66 workers, then 140 in 1860.
Jean-Charles Pellerin made his mark on the history of French illustration by developing the Imagerie d'Épinal, contributing to the popularity of images that captured the imagination of an entire generation.
