Edgar Chahine was born in Vienna but moved to Venice where he studied under the painter Antonio Paoletti in 1892 at the Murad-Rafayelian school. To Paris in 1895 and enrolled in the Academie Julien. Took etching lessons from Eugene Delatre and his etchings began to be published by the dealer Edmund Sagot. He won prizes at the Exposition Universalle Paris and at the Salon de la Societe Nationale des Beaux-Arts. He produced some 600 etchings including those published in books, periodicals and portfolios.