Clouet

muški rodlično ime

French portrait painters and draftsmen of the 16th century, father and son. The father, Jean (or Janet) (c. 1485–1541), is assumed to have been of Flemish origin. He became painter and valet de chamber to Francis I 1516. His son, François (c. 1520–1572), succeeded his father in Francis I’s service 1541 and worked also under Henry II, Francis II, and Charles IX.
Jean Clouet was possibly the son of the painter Jehan Cloët, who was working at Brussels in 1475 and is mentioned in the account books of the Duke of Burgundy. The renewal of court life in Francis's reign was accompanied by a great demand for portrait drawings in black or red chalk in which Clouet excelled, his work including 127 such portraits, mostly at the Musée Condé, Chantilly, comparable with those of Holbein, though distinct and freer in style.
François’s portrait of a Parisian apothecary, Pierre Quthe, 1562, and that of Elizabeth of Austria, 1571, attributed to him, show the Italian influence of the time. His drawings are less robust than those of Jean, but his fame was even greater (though both were renowned), Ronsard calling François “honneur de noter temps” (“the pride of our age”). The name of a third Clouet (de Navarre) appears in records, and a number of other artists worked in a closely related style.