Thomas Charles Naudet (1773–1810) was the son of a publisher and printseller. Aged fifteen he enrolled at the L'école de l'Académie royale in Paris, and was trained as a landscape artist by the Romantic painter Hubert Robert (1733–1808). He was additionally influenced by the French draughtsman and engraver Jean-Jacques de Boissieu (1736–1810).
Naudet frequently travelled on the Continent. He made his first trip to Rome when he was Hubert Robert’s pupil, where in 1806 his portrait was drawn by his friend Ingres at the Villa Medici. Naudet's figures have been likened to his younger contemporary living in Rome, Bartolomeo Pinelli (1781–1835). He also travelled with friends, including the Danish naturalist Tønnes Christian Bruun-Neergaard (1776–1824) and the French draughtsman and antiquary Louis-François Cassas (1756–1827).
Naudet presented his works at the Salon regularly, between 1795 and his early death, in 1810. At the beginning of his career, he produced numerous fashion drawings, caricatures, scenes of battles or from the French Revolution; he later on specialised more in landscape or town views.
He contributed illustrations for a number of publications, including the fifteen-volume French travel anthology 'Choix de voyages dans les quatre parties du monde, ou précis des voyages les plus intéressans, par terre et par mer, entrepris depuis l'année 1806 jusqu'à ce jour', published between 1821 and 1823.
Naudet's drawings were highly regarded by contemporary collectors, including Dominique Vivant-Denon, the first director of the Louvre.
