Jean Clouet

We know the face of King Francis I of France largely through Jean Clouet, and yet we know almost nothing certain about Clouet himself. No signed painting by him survives, his birth date and birthplace are only guessed at, and scholars still argue over which pictures are truly his.

What the records do show is his standing. He came from the Low Countries, the old Burgundian Netherlands, and by 1516, the year Francis took the throne, he was a painter to the French court. By 1523 he held the post of groom of the chamber, a salaried place of the kind granted to leading poets and scholars. His work, in effect, was to shape and spread the image of a powerful young king.

About ten to fifteen portraits are now given to him, along with a body of chalk drawings prized for catching a likeness in a few lines. His son François Clouet took over the role and grew at least as famous, so the two are often confused. Jean's portrait of Francis I in striped white and black satin worked with gold, now in the Louvre, is the picture that fixed the king in memory.