The mere fact that many of the drawings and paintings which are now
with good reason believed to be the work of Jean or Jehan Clouet
(called Jehannet) passed, at a time when art criticism followed methods
less scientific than those which prevail at present, under the name
of Holbein, should suffice to indicate that Clouet’s art belongs
essentially to the Renaissance, and that the Primitive or Gothic period
had come to a close when he arrived in France from the Netherlands,
where he was born about 1475. He apparently worked first at Tours,
where his presence in 1516 is testified by documentary evidence; and he
went to Paris before 1529. Although he was never naturalised, he became
Groom of the Chamber to François I., and enjoyed an enormous reputation
for his skill in portraiture. He died in 1540 or 1541.