JEANNE D’ALBRET, WHEN A CHILD. MADAME MARGUERITE, SISTER OF HENRI II.
Attributed to Jean Clouet. Attributed to François Clouet.
Musée Condé.
To face page 226.
CHAPTER XVII
FRANÇOIS CLOUET AND HIS FOLLOWERS
FRANCIS I, King of France, survived Jean Clouet but a few years, so that the artistic career of his celebrated son, François, chiefly developed during the reigns of Henri II, Francis II and Charles IX.
It is difficult to determine what effect Jean Clouet’s death had upon his son, but we are led to suppose that at first he continued closely to adhere to parental teaching. Indeed from 1540 to 1545 it is scarcely possible to discern any of those differences of style so conspicuous a decade later.
Two female portraits, still existing, seem to give weight to this argument. These likenesses, although in the style of the elder Clouet, from the age and the attire of the sitters can only have been drawn during the years 1544-5, by which date that artist had already vanished from the scenes and his son was at work alone.
These drawings represent Jossine Pisseleu[112] (niece of the famous Duchesse d’Estampe), better known under the name of “Hegli,” and the beautiful daughter of Diane de Poitiers, called “Brasseu.”[113] Both of these portraits are rendered specially interesting by the fact that their respective names are written on the margin by Queen Catherine de Medicis. These two ladies, Hegli and Brasseu, are known to have belonged to that gay company known as la petite bande, of which the young Catherine herself, when Dauphine, was also a member.
Francis I, thanks to his own great taste for Art, comprehended to the full the different talents of the artists in his employ; and whilst he commissioned Rosso and Primaticcio to execute the frescoes at Fontainebleau, the two Clouets were successively entrusted with such portrait painting as he required.
At Chantilly there is an exquisite portrait of Louise de Clermont, Duchesse d’Uzez, another of the fair members of the petite bande whom the King nicknamed “la Grenouille” on account of her husky voice and projecting eyes: a drawing which belongs to the same series already referred to; that is to say, an early work with which François Clouet was commissioned after his father’s demise. A miniature taken from this drawing is preserved in the Louvre.