Born in Paris in 1822, Auguste Delatre was printer of etchings and aquatints. Around 1850 Delatre opened his own printing house which was quickly famous in France and abroad. Delatre moved to London in 1860 to found an engraving section in the South Kensington Museum, and he returned to London from 1871 to 1876 after his house and workshop were partially destroyed by Prussian bombardment and Commune.