Clouet, Jean

(ca. 1485-1541)

   painter, miniaturist

   Renowned for his royal portraits, Jean Clouet (or Janet Clouet as he is also known), an important French Renaissance artist, was of Flemish origin. He settled in Tours in 1515 and became painter to the king, Francis I. He painted religious subjects (these painting have disappeared) and produced cartoons for tapestries. Attributed to him are also a series of eight miniatures, the Preux de Marignon, and several painted portraits: François I en costume d'apparat (ca. 1520-30), Le Dauphin François, Guillaume Budé, and L'Inconnu avec un livre de Petrarque. His style, characterized by minute attention to detail and delicacy of line, is not without comparison to that of Hans Holbein, but it is also a tribute to the art of the miniaturist. There is his series of a hundred drawings, portraits done according to nature with black and red chalk and heightened color, distinguished by an extreme sharpness of features, which are a testimony to the success of this style at the valois court. Janet Clouet was widely imitated and his genre continued into the 17th century, thanks to several artists of that period.