CLOUET, Jean
(b. 1485/90, Bruxelles, d. 1541, Paris)

Madame de Lautrec

-
Chalk drawing
Musée Condé, Chantilly

Studying the drawings by Clouet, we can find marked and consistent characteristics. Clouet seems hardly interested in outline; it is generally softened by being worked over several times, and the drawings have neither decorative nor descriptive qualities. Clouet conceives the head primarily in terms of solid form, and not as a flat pattern on the paper on which modelling is later added. In this way Clouet's chalk portraits are close to Italian models. Clouet must count as one of the few French artists who understood the aims of the High Renaissance.