View of Catanzaro (from “Voyage Pittoresque, ou Description des royaumes de Naples et de Sicile” by Jean-Claude Richard Abbé de Saint Non)

Claude-Louis Châtelet, a French painter, was born in Paris in 1753. He produced Swiss views, sea-pieces, and pastoral scenes in the style of Vernet. Examples of his work are in the Orléans Museum, the Palace at Fontainebleau, and the Cottier Collection. He embraced with ardour the cause of the Revolution, allied himself with Robespierre and the leaders of the Jacobins, and became a member of the Revolutionary Tribunal. He was arrested some months after the 9th Thermidor, tried, condemned, and executed in Paris, May 7, 1795.