Antoine Cardon
engraver, painter, portraitist (1739-1822)
Antoine-Alexandre-Joseph Cardon (1739–1822), also known as Cardon the elder to distinguish him from his son Anthony Cardon, was a painter, portraitist and engraver.
Life
Cardon was born in Brussels, 1739. He lived for a long time on rue de Persil (near place Saint-Michel, now known as Place des Martyrs) in the city, which also passed through French and Dutch hands during his lifetime, and shone in the arts under the Austrian, French and Dutch regimes.
He was a student of Hyacinthe de La Peyne, painter to empress Maria Theresa, the sovereign of the Austrian Netherlands, and once followed his teacher to Vienna. Thanks to the protection of Johann Karl Philipp von Cobenzl, Maria-Theresa's minister-plenipotentiary in Brussels, Cardon became a pensionary of the government and was thus able to stay for a time in Rome and Naples.
Recalled to Brussels by Cobenzl, he became a professor at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts and made his artistic career in the city - his pupils included Adèle Kindt. It was there in 1810 that he and Antoine Brice founded an association of professional and amateur artists. In 1822 Cardon was named a member of the Royal Institute of the Netherlands by William II of the Netherlands.
He was a highly enthusiastic member of Freemasonry, then having great success in the nobility of the Austrian Netherlands - his name is among the first initiates of the "loge de l'Union" (third lodge in Brussels, n° 9, inscribed on the tables of 1783 and 1786), and he engraved several Masonic diplomas and emblems.
Cardon died in Brussels.
“Antoine Cardon” enters the record as engraver, painter, portraitist (1739-1822). Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Antoine, Cardon and engraver can confirm, complicate or overturn.
Why this record matters
“Antoine Cardon” is worth following because a concise public description often conceals a longer documentary argument. Here, Antoine, Cardon and engraver provides the most credible route into that argument.
The citation trail is more important than the brevity of the summary: it shows where individual claims can be examined in context. The source revision retrieved here is dated Aug 3, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q2853763. VIAF identifies the subject as 29801000. The Library of Congress control number is n90668763. 3 of 3 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1739, 1822, 1810 and 1783.
The absence of detail may reflect summary conventions rather than a lack of surviving documentation. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
How to read it
Use the entry as an orientation point, then follow its citations and revision history. Names, dates and institutional relationships should be checked against the original record.
- Subject orientation
- Search vocabulary
- Locating named sources
The closest primary source, responsible institution and strongest cited specialist reference.
Three-step research path
- Establish the record: confirm the title “Antoine Cardon”, its source revision and the description used here.
- Expand the search: follow Antoine Cardon primary sources, Antoine Cardon archive and Antoine research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
- Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.
Questions for further research
- Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Antoine Cardon”?
- Which institution is responsible for the underlying evidence?
- What terminology or title could unlock a more precise catalogue search?
Search terms from this dossier
This entry incorporates text from “Antoine Cardon” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.