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Robert CAMI


A strong, museum‑ready paragraph on Robert Cami can draw on his documented career as one of the leading French engravers of the 20th century, while keeping the tone elegant and informative.


Robert Cami (1900–1975) was a French draughtsman, engraver, and medal and stamp designer whose career spanned some of the most formative decades of modern French printmaking. Born in Bordeaux, he trained at the École des Beaux-Arts of his native city before earning a scholarship to continue his studies in Paris, where he worked under masters such as François Flameng, Auguste Laguillermie, Charles‑Albert Waltner, and Lucien Simon. His talent was recognized early: he received multiple distinctions culminating in the Grand Prix de Rome for engraving in 1928, which led to a residency at the Villa Medici in Rome from 1929 to 1932. Cami became a central figure in French engraving, teaching first in Bordeaux and later at the École nationale supérieure des Beaux-Arts in Paris, where he served as head of the intaglio engraving studio from 1945 to 1970. His work ranges from classical burin engravings and etchings to book illustrations, medallic art, and numerous postage stamps created for France and its overseas territories. Known for his precision, technical mastery, and refined sense of composition, Cami remains one of the most respected French engravers of his generation.