http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000S6O0IE/?tag=2022091-20
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0714814318/?tag=2022091-20
https://artsandculture.google.com/asset/portrait-de-fran%C3%A7ois-ier-1494-1547-roi-de-france/8QEEIPFzZ8g64Q
1515
https://artsandculture.google.com/asset/portrait-of-marguerite-of-navarre-jean-clouet-attributed/UgGlchBfaSf7hA
1527
https://artsandculture.google.com/asset/guillaume-bud%C3%A9-1467%E2%80%931540-jean-clouet/jwEfV7bYmWlhUA
1536
Jean Clouet was born in 1480 in Brussels, Belgium and was the son either of Michel Clouet, known to have painted in Valenciennes, or of the Brussels painter Jan Clouet. Clouet's origin is obscure. Although he lived in France most of his life, records show that he was not French by origin and was never naturalized. Probably, he origins from the Netherlands, where the name Clouet was common at the end of the 15th century.
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 second year of the reign of Francis I.
He is recorded as living in Tours in 1522 and in that year Clouet was awarded the position of Groom of the Chamber by the King, with a stipend at first of 180 livres and later of 240.
He and his wife were certainly living in Paris since 1529.
Jean Clouet was undoubtedly a very skillful portrait painter, although no work in existence has been proved to be his. He painted chiefly portraits, but, at least in the earlier part of his career, he also produced religious subjects (a “St. Jerome” in 1522; designs for the “Four Evangelists, ” 1523). Until recently, the works attributed to Clouet consisted of a group of about 130 preparatory drawings representing members of the French court between 1514 and 1540 and a small group of miniatures and oil paintings, the drawings for which can be found among those of the first group. None of these, however, is signed or documented as the work of Jean Clouet. Consequently, their attribution to Clouet was merely tentative.
His drawings are simple, broad, and subtle; his paintings are fresh in color, subdued in modeling, and minute in execution. His technique seems fundamentally Flemish (he came probably either from Brussels or from the old Franco-Flemish region of Valenciennes), but the supply drawing, the calm plasticity, and the acute analysis of the individual in his portraits are typically French.
He met his wife in Tours, where he lived several years. She was the daughter of a jeweller. They had two children - François and Catherine, who married Abel Foulon. François continued the profession of his father after his decease.
