Before we take leave of Jean Clouet and pass on to his brilliant son attention should be called to a fascinating portrait of a young girl inscribed “la reine Jehanne de Navarre petite,”[111] which, on account of its excellence, might well be attributed to the master himself. In this instance history comes to our aid, for we are informed that Princesse Jeanne (known as “la mignonne de deux rois” on account of the marked affection shown to her by both King Francis, her uncle, and King Henry of Navarre, her father) was in her fourth year removed from the charge of her own parents and transported to Plessis-le-Tours, a château on the Loire; where there was provided for her a suite consisting of a lady-in-waiting, a master of the horse, two chaplains and other attendants. The reason for this strange arrangement was political, inasmuch as Francis feared that Henry of Navarre would negotiate a marriage between this child and Philip of Spain, eldest son of Charles V. In vain the little Princess wept and implored her Royal uncle to allow her to rejoin her mother. Her wish was not to be granted until she had reached her twelfth year, and then only on condition that she should be betrothed at once to the Duke of Cleves, whose sister Anne was wife of King Henry VIII of England—a political scheme to unite the Protestant Princes of Germany and England against the Emperor Charles V. It was probably at the moment when the Princess was about to leave the lonely château on the Loire that Francis commissioned Jean Clouet to secure for him a likeness of his niece before her departure for Béarn. Jeanne, who was born at Fontainebleau in 1528, appears here to be about twelve years of age; so that the drawing may perhaps have been executed in 1539-40, and, since it was one of the artist’s last works it gains greatly in interest.
That François Clouet succeeded his father as Court-Painter in 1541 is proved by a document in the “Trésor des Chartres” which runs as follows: “François par la grace de Dieu, roy de France, etc.... Savoir faisons ... que voulant reconnoistre envers nostre cher et bien aimé painctre et varlet de chambre ordinaire, François Clouet les bons et agréables services que feu Me Jehannet Clouet, son père, aussi de son vivant nostre painctre et varlet de chambre, nous a durant son vivant faictz en son dict estat et art, auquel il estoit très expert et en quoy son dict fils la jà très bien imité, et espérons qu’il fera et continuera encores de bien en mieux cy après, a icelluy, François Clouet pour ces causes et affin que de ce faire il ayt meilleure voullonté, moïen et occasion, avons donné, octroïé, cedé et délaissé, tous et chacuns les biens meubles et immeubles qui furent et appartendrent au dict Me Jehannet Clouet, son père, à nous advenuy et escheuz, adjugez et declarez appartenir par droit d’aubène au moïen de ce que le dict deffunt estait estranger et non natif ne originaire des nostre royaume et n’avoit obtenu de nos predecesseurs roys ny de nous aucunes lettres de naturalité et congié de tester” (published by E. de Freville, Arch. de l’art Français, t. iii, p. 98).
From the above document we learn the following important facts, namely: (a) that Jean Clouet was not of French origin; (b) that he was highly esteemed by the King; and (c) that after his death François Clouet, his son, inherited all his privileges and favours.
Plate LXI.
Photo. Giraudon.