François Clouet

François Clouet (1510 - Dec 22, 1572), son of Jean Clouet, was a French Renaissance miniaturist and painter, particularly known for his detailed portraits of the French ruling family

François Clouet was born in Tours, as the son of the court painter Jean Clouet Jean Clouet was a native of the Southern Netherlands and probably from the Brussels area François Clouet studied under his father He inherited his father's nickname ‘Janet’ and is referred to as such in some early sources and the older literature

The earliest reference to François Clouet is a document dated December 1541 in which the king renounces for the benefit of François his father's estate, which had escheated to the crown as the estate of a foreigner In this document, the younger Clouet is said to have followed his father very closely in his art Like his father, he held the office of groom of the chamber and painter in ordinary to the king, and so far as salary is concerned, he started where his father left off Many drawings are attributed to this artist, often without perfect certainty There is, however, more to go upon than there is in the case of his father

As the praises of François Clouet were sung by the writers of the day, his name was carefully preserved from reign to reign, and there is an ancient and unbroken tradition in the attribution of many of his pictures There are not, however, any original attestations of his works, nor are any documents known which would guarantee the ascriptions usually accepted To him are attributed the portraits of Francis I at the Uffizi and at the Louvre, and various drawings relating to them

He probably also painted the portrait of Catherine de' Medici at Versailles and other works, and in all probability a large number of the drawings ascribed to him were from his hand

One of his most remarkable portraits is that of Mary, Queen of Scots, a drawing in chalks in the Bibliothèque Nationale, and of similar character are the two portraits of Charles IX and the one at Chantilly of Marguerite of France Perhaps his masterpiece is the portrait of Elizabeth of Austria in the Louvre This piece made an important impression on Claude Lévi-Strauss In particular it helped inspire his theory of the modèle réduit, or of works of art as 'miniature models', and other theories of artworks, in his book The Savage Mind

Clouet resided in Paris in the rue de Ste Avoye in the Temple quarter, close to the Hotel de Guise, and in 1568 is known to have been under the patronage of Claude Gouffier de Boisy, Seigneur d'Oiron, and his wife Claude de Baune Another ascertained fact concerning François Clouet is that in 1571 he was summoned to the office of the Court of the Mint, and his opinion was taken on the likeness to the king of a portrait struck by the mint He prepared the death-mask of Henry II, as in 1547 he had taken a similar mask of the face and hands of Francis I, in order that the effigy to be used at the funeral might be prepared from his drawings; and on each of these occasions he executed the painting to be used in the decorations of the church and the banners for the great ceremony

Several miniatures are believed to be his work, one very remarkable portrait being the half-length figure of Henry II in the collection of J Pierpont Morgan Another of his portraits is that of François, duc d'Alençon in the Jones collection at the Victoria & Albert Museum Catherine de Medici described the efforts of Maistre Jamet (he used his father's name) on Alençon's portrait to the ambassador in London, Mothe Fénélon Certain representations of members of the royal family which were in the Hamilton Palace collection and the Magniac sale are usually ascribed to him

He died on 22 December 1572, shortly after the massacre of St Bartholomew, and his will, mentioning his sister and his two illegitimate daughters, and dealing with the disposition of a considerable amount of property, is still in existence His daughters subsequently became nuns

Works:
François Clouet continues the work of portraitist of his father, and his art presents much analogy with the style of which Jean was the inventor: same sobriety, concentration on the search for resemblance and even care to avoid any superfluous detail But he went even further in his works of gallant themes (The Lady in the bath) and satirical (The Farce of the Greeks descended)

drawings
The drawings of Francis do not possess the aerial lightness of those of John, but as portraits they are no less striking, and it is he who first thought of giving them a finish that attests that he Considered them more as preparatory sketches, but as works of art completed in themselves One might say that the 54 authentic drawings by François Clouet, distributed between the Condé de Chantilly museum and the cabinet d'estampes in Paris, still surpass those of his father in the way that he had opened

Painting
As for his painted portraits, their technique is brighter and more free than that of John Holbein's influence in the portrait of Henry II, that of the Venetians, and that of the Primatice can be seen in the signed painting of the Cook collection Like that of Titian (Venus of Urbino) in the portraits of Diana of Poitiers

Like the Florentine Mannerists, in the portrait of his neighbor and friend the apothecary Pierre Quthe, dated 1562, he places at his side a herbarium that recalls his activity, and he places his model in an interior materialized by a table and a curtain

The small equestrian portrait preserved in the Uffizi is almost a copy of that of the Louvre by his father He added a landscape that gives depth to the painting and columns that evoke ancient architecture

Other works:
As a court painter, he took part in major projects such as those for the funeral of Francis I in 1547 and Henry II in 15579, monarchs whose mortuary masks he will carry out

His work is remarkable for the elaborate finish of all the details, the extreme accuracy of the drawing, and the exquisite completeness of the whole portrait He must have been a man of high intelligence, and of great penetration, intensely interested in his work, and with considerable ability to represent the character of his sitter in his portraits His coloring is perhaps not specially remarkable, nor from the point of style can his pictures be considered very fairly beautiful, but in perfection of drawing he has hardly any equal
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