THE veil of oblivion which so undeservedly fell upon Perréal is gradually lifted as we approach the period of Jean Clouet. Even if we except some drawings which we are bound to assign to an earlier period there still remain a great number which, judging by the age and style of costume of the characters represented, must necessarily be reckoned as falling within his period and may be reasonably attributed to him. Mention is made of no less than four persons bearing the surname of Clouet: Jean the grandfather, who painted for the Duke of Burgundy at Brussels about 1485; Jean Clouet, Court-Painter to Francis I; and his two sons—Clouet of Navarre[88] and François, who brought to its zenith the art of drawing in sixteenth-century France.
Plate LIV.
THE DAUPHIN FRANCOIS, ELDEST SON OF FRANCIS I.
Antwerp Museum.
To face page 212.
Jean Clouet,[89] also known as Jeannet, migrated to France and settled at Tours, where he presently married Jeanne Boucault, the daughter of a goldsmith. He first appears in the Royal Accounts in 1516 as receiving 160 livres per annum—a sum which, on the death of Bourdichon in 1522, was increased to 240 livres. Subsequently we find special references to several portraits by him, taken from life[90] which the King was so anxious to see that he sent for them by “diligence and post-horses.” Again we read further on that his wife, Jeanne, travelled expressly from Paris[91] to Fontainebleau in order to convey to His Majesty portraits done by her husband: “Pour apporter et monstrer au dict seigneur aucuns ouvrages du dict Jeannet.” After the death of Perréal in 1528 Jean Clouet remained practically without a rival. Only one artist—a certain Jean Champion who seems to have been in receipt of a very small salary—is mentioned besides him; but none of this man’s work is actually recorded. Amongst the numerous works attributed to Jean Clouet absolute certainty may be given to a portrait of Oronce Finé, which, however, has only come down to us through a mediocre engraving in Thevet’s series of Hommes Illustres. Thevet speaks of this portrait as an authentic work by Jean Clouet on the authority of the mathematician’s own son but it is not easy to judge fairly the work of any artist by an engraving. We can, however, gather enough from it to justify us in concluding that Jean Clouet’s craftsmanship was of a more elaborate nature than that which may be observed in the portraits of the Preux de-Marignan. The portrait of Oronce Finé, for example, bears far more resemblance to that of Duc Claude de Guise,[92] of which there is a drawing at Chantilly and a coloured copy in the Pitti Gallery at Florence, both executed at about the same time. Then again there is at Hampton Court an excellent portrait of an Unknown Man holding a volume of Petrarch, which is attributed to Jean Clouet. The original drawing for this somewhat later and more artistic piece of work is also at Chantilly. Another drawing likewise at Chantilly (a capital example of the artist’s methods) represents Francis I after his reverses at Pavia, wherein His Majesty has lost that expression of youthful buoyancy so conspicuous in the oil-painting in the same collection. He wears his cap adorned with a white plume no longer close-set as formerly and straight on his forehead, but according to the fashion of the day with the hair projecting from underneath it and slightly tilted to the left. His beard has also been allowed to grow, in order, it is said, to hide a scar on his cheek. This drawing was unquestionably taken from life, and was used for the portrait in oils now in the Louvre; which serves to prove how much care and diligence Jean Clouet expended upon his portraits. Just as a sculptor uses the clay for his models, so with equal faithfulness the artist made his drawings serve for his final portraits in a heavier medium. This small painting,[93] now recognised as an original work, is infinitely superior to the larger portrait,[94] also in the Louvre, although both have evidently been copied from one and the same drawing. Both portraits were formerly at Fontainebleau, where tradition had always assigned them to Jean Clouet. This likeness of King Francis seems to have been a very favourite one for we find numerous copies of it: for example, in the Méjanés Collection at Aix; in the Recueil Marriette; and in the Recueil d’Orange in England.[95] There are no less than eight copies of it in St. Petersburg, and the one in Florence is said to have been made by Queen Catherine herself. A later portrait of this King, likewise at Chantilly, represents him in middle age, when years had already begun to tell upon him and the lines of his face had become heavy and drawn. The original drawing for this—perhaps also by Jean Clouet—is lost, but a copy survives in the Recueil Lenoir. A miniature in oil at Florence, in which the King is represented on horseback, seems to have been designed from this drawing; whilst another similar miniature in the Louvre (Collection Sauvageot) is generally considered to be the work of François Clouet, who had at that time just begun his artistic career under his father’s direction. This is probably the last likeness of Francis designed by Jean Clouet. It appears to have been painted in 1539 and may be regarded as the official portrait of this King. It is certainly vastly superior to another even later portrait, of which there is a copy in the Louvre and a miniature in the Recueil du Tillet (Bibliothèque Nationale), where His Majesty is shown to have greatly increased in girth. Another similar miniature is in the ante-room at Chantilly, the King being again represented on horseback after a fashion affected by the succeeding Valois Kings; and the same original reappears in the Book of Hours of Catherine de Medicis, where Francis figures as King David; appearing to be older than he really was, for he was but fifty-three when he died. Both Thevet in his Hommes Illustres and Gautier in his Kings of France reproduce this same portrait.