Claude Audran the Elder, the brother (or, as some say, the cousin) of Charles, was born in Paris in 1597. After receiving some instruction from Charles, he removed to Lyons, where he died in 1677. Whether he visited Rome or not is uncertain. His engravings, which are signed either Claude Audran, or CI. Audran, are executed after the manner of Cornelis Cort and F. Villamena. They are chiefly portraits and allegories. He left three sons, Germain, Claude the younger, and Gérard.
This article incorporates text from the article "AUDRAN, Claude, 'the eldest,'" in Bryan's Dictionary of Painters and Engravers by Michael Bryan, edited by Robert Edmund Graves and Sir Walter Armstrong, an 1886–1889 publication now in the public domain.