For hundreds of years, the family of European Renaissance-era painters known as the Clouets were conflated into one man: ‘Jannet’ (or ‘Janet’) Clouet. It was long assumed that this sole 16th century artist churned out masterworks of portraiture for several French monarchs in succession, starting with François I.
This assumption was challenged in the mid-19th century, when scholars found primary source documents in the French Bibliothéque Nationale that revealed some interesting facts about the Clouets.
Medallion depicting Jean Clouet the Younger. Wikimedia photo
The findings revealed that the Clouet family included up to four artists. The patriarch, Jean (or Jehan) Clouet the elder, appeared to originate in Brussels, where he was part of a painters’ guild. He arrived in Tours, France, about 1485. His son Jean (also known as Jehannet) was probably born in Brussels, too (Jean Jr. would go on to father François). Further study revealed that Jean the Elder (or possibly his brother Michel) may have had another son, whose name may or may not have been ‘Polet’ (Paul); this man may have worked for Marguerite, Queen of Navarre (François I’s sister).
Whew!
All of this connect-the-dots theorizing was based on a few 15th– and 16th-century documents. While this scant documentation was being unearthed bit by bit, other researchers discovered chalk drawings, painted miniatures, and various paintings over the decades that slowly entered the Clouet oeuvre. There are likely more as-yet undiscovered works by various Clouets just waiting to be found in dusty attics and museum storage rooms around Europe.
King François I of France by Jean Clouet. Wikimedia photo.
The work of the Clouets was done in translucent layers of oil paint and exhibited the kind of detailed realism of Low Country masters like Jan Van Eyck, which French artists of the day could not pull off. They also created stunning chalk drawings of their subjects that used techniques only deployed then by Leonardo da Vinci and his peers in Italy. This has prompted the idea that the Clouets and da Vinci (and perhaps other Italian artists) mingled and traded shop talk during da Vinci’s time in the French royal court in the early 1500s.
As the Clouets were influenced by Da Vinci, they may have influenced other artists, too—most notably Hans Holbein the Younger, court painter to Henry VIII of England.
But more on that in a future post.
Jean Clouet the Younger was likely born around 1485. In 1521 he was reportedly married and living in Tours, and he died in 1541. In 1516 he was first recorded in the Royal Accounts for his annual wages as a painter. He earned the same amount as four other artists patronized by King François I. His wages were reported in most years after that until 1538. In 1540, his son François’s name appeared for the first time in the Royal Records as Peintre et varlet de chambre.
Notarial documents from Tours reveal that Clouet’s wife was called Jehanne Boucault. Her father was a master jeweler and a prominent citizen of Tours. Further notarial records indicate that Jehanne Boucault conducted business in Tours on behalf of her husband while he was away, perhaps indicating his travels with the highly mobile French court.
Queen Marguerite of Navarre, painted either by Jean Clouet or his mysterious brother who might have been called ‘Polet’ or Paul. Wikimedia photo.
After François I’s defeat and capture at Pavia in 1525, his sister Marguerite of Navarre negotiated his release. Subsequently, he moved his court from the Loire Valley back to Paris and Fountainebleau. Jean Clouet likely made the move as well, as indicated by a letter from Marguerite de Navarre to an official in the Île de France (translation is mine):
“Monsieur Chancellor, the King of Navarre and I have decided to take the painter brother of Jannet, painter to the King, into our service, and pay him a hundred livres from the lord’s [the King of Navarre’s] estate and a hundred livres from mine. Since we have a project that we need him for, please send him to us by Monday at the latest, and please give him some money to begin…”
According to scholar Peter Mellen (whose excellent book, Jean Clouet: Complete Edition of the Drawings, Miniatures, and Paintings, is the source of much of this information) this letter is the only known reference to ‘the painter brother of Jannet’. Perhaps Queen Marguerite is referring to the ‘Polet’ or Paul mentioned above; however, none of the attempts to definitively identify ‘Clouet of Navarre’ have been successful. The queen’s letter is not dated, but it had to be written between April 1527, when Marguerite married Henri, King of Navarre, and 1528, when the Chancellor d’Alençon died.
In 1537 a Royal Account showed record of payment to Jean Clouet’s wife, Jehanne Boucault, for transporting some Clouet paintings to Fontainebleau to show them to the King. As I mentioned above, Jehanne Boucault was the daughter of a prosperous jeweler (during that era, jewelers were considered artists, as you’ll see when we return to Hans Holbein in a future post). It was typical of the era for artists to marry into families of other artists.
Women who were daughters, sisters, or wives of artists frequently participated behind the scenes as artists themselves. Most of them worked anonymously, but their work often rivaled or surpassed that of their male relatives. It is possible, then, that Jehanne was responsible for some of the work produced in her husband’s atelier. So perhaps we should add Jehanne Boucault to the growing list of Clouet family members who were responsible for a tremendous collection of Renaissance-era portraiture.
For my next deep dive into art history mysteries, I’ll focus on Hans Holbein the Younger, who emerged from humble origins in Augsburg, Germany, to become the celebrated court painter to King Henry VIII and other Tudor-era power players.
My historical mystery series about a Renaissance-era woman artist and the modern day scholar on her trail begins with the award-winning book The Girl from Oto. Learn more and find the book here.
