The French painters Jean (ca. 1485-ca. 1541) and François (ca. 1516-ca. 1572) Clouet were masters of an elegantly mannered, aristocratic style of portrait painting and of colored chalk portrait drawing.

Jean Clouet was court painter to King Francis I. His son, François, succeeded him as court painter and maintained that position under Henry II, Francis II, and Charles IX.

Jean Clouet

Jean, or Janet, Clouet was the son either of Michel Clouet, known to have painted in Valenciennes, or of the Brussels painter Jan Clouet. In any case, Jean's early training must have exposed him to the formal, cool, and detached Flemish mannerist portrait type as seen in the works of Jan Gossart and Joos van Cleve.

Jean was appointed painter to the court of Francis I in 1516, the year of the monarch's accession to the throne. Though Jean was never naturalized, he became the chief...