JOLTVENET, JEAN, a celebrated French painter during the reign of Louis XIV., was born at Rouen in 1644. He was first instructed by his father Laurent Jouvenet, but completed his studies in Paris, where he eoou attracted the notice of Lebruu, who in 1675 procured him his election into the Academy of Paiutiog for a picture of ' Esther before Ahasuerus,' which is one of the best paintings of the Academy collection. Jouvenet had obtained considerable distinction two years previously by his picture of the 'Lame Man healed,' which was the so-called May Picture (Le Tableau du Mai) of 1673. The May Picture is a painting which was formerly presented ou the 1st of May of every year to the Virgin, in the cathedral of Notre Dame, by the Goldsmiths of Paris : the practice ceased in 1708. Jouveuct became eucceasively professor, director, and perpetual rector of the Academy, and ho was granted a small pension by Louis XIV. Jouvenet's last work, the Visitation of the Virgin,' or Le 31agnificat, in tho cathedral of Notre Dame, was painted with his left hand in 1717. He had a paralytic stroke iu 1718 and lost the use of his right hand, but upon the first trial he found his left as obedient to his will as his right heel been ; one of the many proofs that, iu art, it Is the mind rather than the hand that requires the education. Ile died in 1717.
The French boast of Jouvenet, as of Le Sueur, because lie never visited Italy ; and it is for the same reason, according to some, that hu is censured by Couut Algarotti, who, they say, had no faith in an excellence that could be acquired out of Italy. The works of
Jouvenet ere not brilliant in any respect or even attractive, yet they posses/1 all the greater merits of a picture iu more than an ordinary degree. His style resembles that of Nicolas remain, especially in com position and colour ; and he excelled in light and shade, but in expression he was never great.
There are ten of Jouvenet's pictures in the Louvre, some of which arc his beet works, as the 'Miraculous Draught of Fishes; the 'Resur rection of Lazarus,' the ' Sellers driven from the Temple,' ' Christ in the House of Simon the Pharisee,' and the 'Descent from the Cross.' The first four have been worked iu tapestry of the Cohens, rind they have all been engraved, as have also nearly all Jouvenet's best works, by some of the beat French engravers—by H. S. Thomaasin, J. Audran, E. Picard, L. Desplaces, A. Loir, 'A. Trouvain, and others. There are works by Jouvenet in many of the churches of Paris, mural and easel pictures. Of his mural paintings the principal are the colossal frescoes of the Apostles painted on the dome of the church Des Invalides.