Charles Joshua Chaplin

Charles Joshua Chaplin (8 June 1825 – 30 January 1891) was a French painter and printmaker who painted both landscapes and portraits. He worked in techniques such as pastels, lithography, watercolor, chalk, oil painting and etching. He was best known for his elegant portraits of young women.

Charles Joshua Chaplin was born on 8 June 1825 in Les Andelys, Eure, France. His mother, Olympia Adelle Moisy, was French, whereas his father, John Chaplin, was an art broker from England. Charles Chaplin spent his whole life in France, becoming a naturalized citizen in 1886. He studied at the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris from 1840, and he took private lessons in the studio of Michel Martin Drolling, whose apprentices included Paul Baudry, Jules Breton and Jean-Jacques Henner. Later he also taught at the École des Beaux-Arts.

In 1845, he entered the Paris Salon, the official art exhibition of the Académie des Beaux-Arts, as a portrait and landscape painter with the painting Portrait of the Artist's Mother. Chaplin conducted art classes specifically for women at his studio, including Marie Joséphine Nicolas.