Emile-Frédéric Nicolle, grandfather of the famous Cubist painter and engraver Jacques Villon (pseudonym Gaston Duchamp), whose chalcography has several engraved plates, made his first etching in his twenty-fourth year. Painter, watercolorist, he was for Rouen an attentive witness to the changes in his native city. Indeed, as a member of the Society of Friends of the Arts of Rouen, he designed and engraved the main buildings of Rouen before they disappeared during the redevelopment of the city. He participated in the 1878 Universal Exhibition and several times at the Salons des Artistes Français in Paris with his etchings. In 1883 he received the Academic Palms.