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Historical Artist - Jean Fouquet (1420 - 1481)
French painter, Jean Fouquet originally worked as a limner and miniaturist. He was first
commissioned to paint the portrait of Pope Eugenius IV in Rome. It was during this time in Italy
where he came into contact with the emerging Flemish and Tuscan styles of painting. After
returning to France and combining all his inspirations, he created an individual style that
shaped later generations of French art. Also referred to as Souquet, Jean's supreme excellence
as an illuminator, the exquisite precision in the rendering of the finest detail, and his power
of clear characterization in work on this minute scale, have long since procured him an eminent
position in the art of his country; his importance as a painter was fully realized when his
portraits and altarpieces were for the first time brought together from various parts of Europe,
at the exhibition of the "French Primitives" held at the Bibliothèque Nationale
in Paris. His self-portrait miniature would be the earliest sole self-portrait surviving in
Western art, if the portrait in the National Gallery, London by Jan van Eyck were not in fact a
self-portrait, as most art historians believe it to be.
Contemporary French Artists
Art Galleries in France
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