CLOUET, JEAN. – Painter and draughtsman, born in the Netherlands (?) around 1485, died in Paris in 1540. He is recorded in Tours from 1516, where he also executed large altarpieces; from 1529 he settled in Paris and worked chiefly as a portraitist. In the service of François I, he produced numerous portraits of court personages and of the king himself (Louvre, Chantilly, Uffizi), and made miniatures for books (Guerre Gallique, National Library of Paris). His greatest merit lies in his portrait drawings, of which the museum of Chantilly possesses the most famous examples. They have the delicacy of
those by Holbein, but are more stylized, and highly refined in technique and expression.
His son, FRANÇOIS, born in Tours before 1522, died in Paris in 1572, followed his father’s style in the art of portraiture and, after his father’s death, took his place as court painter to François I (1541); he remained there under Henri II and Charles IX as well. He is famous for his drawings. The painted portrait of P. Cutte in the Louvre dates from 1562; among the numerous other portraits of princes, etc., that of Henri II in the Uffizi (1559) is one of the best known.