Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Benoist, Antoine
BENOIST, ANTOINE (1721–1770), draughtsman and engraver, was born at Soissons in 1721. Early in life he was brought to England by Claude du Bosc, the engraver, and found employment as a teacher of drawing in many private families of the higher class. Among his engravings are a portrait of Louis XV, after Blackey, dated 1741; a frieze on two plates representing 'A Procession of Free-Masons in London.' dated 1742; and some small etchings of the battles and sieges of the French armies in the reign of Louis XIV but it is doubtful whether the latter are by Antoine Benoist or by C. L. Benoist, who was living in Paris about the same time. Antoine died in London in August 1770.
[Meyer's Allgemeines Künstler-Lexikon, 1872, &c., iii. 544; Portalis and Béraldi's Graveurs du dix-huitième siècle, 1880-2, i. 160; Didot's Graveurs de Portraits en France, 1875-7, i. 33.]