Jean-Baptiste Marie Huet (;

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...

, 15 October 1745 – Paris, 27 January 1811) was a French painter, engraver and designer associated with pastoral and genre scenes of animals in the

Rococo Rococo, less commonly Roccoco ( , ; or ), also known as Late Baroque, is an exceptionally ornamental and dramatic style of architecture, art and decoration which combines asymmetry, scrolling curves, gilding, white and pastel colours, sculpte ...

manner, influenced by

François Boucher François Boucher ( , ; ; 29 September 1703 – 30 May 1770) was a French painter, draughtsman and etcher, who worked in the Rococo style. Boucher is known for his idyllic and voluptuous paintings on classical themes, decorative allegories ...

. Born into a family of artists— his uncle was Christophe Huet, his father Nicolas Huet—he apprenticed with the animal painter Charles Dagomer, a member of the

painters' guild The Guild of Saint Luke was the most common name for a city guild for painters and other artists in early modern Europe, especially in the Low Countries. They were named in honor of the Four Evangelists, Evangelist Saint Luke, Luke, the patron sa ...

, the ''Académie de Saint-Luc'', Paris, who was working in the 1760s. Huet’s interest in printmaking and his acquaintance with Gilles Demarteau, who later engraved many of his compositions, both date from this period. About 1764 Huet entered the studio of

Jean-Baptiste Le Prince Jean-Baptiste Nicolas Le Prince (September 17, 1734 – September 30, 1781) was an important French etcher and painter. Le Prince first studied painting techniques in his native Metz. He then travelled to Paris around 1750 after being sponsored ...

, where he further developed his printmaking skills, largely reproducing his own paintings, a method of publishing them with some profit. In 1768 he was approved (''agréé'') by the

Académie Royale An academy (Attic Greek: Ἀκαδήμεια; Koine Greek Ἀκαδημία) is an institution of tertiary education. The name traces back to Plato's school of philosophy, founded approximately 386 BC at Akademia, a sanctuary of Athena, the g ...

, and 29 July 1769 he was received (''reçu'') in the minor category (''petite manière'') of painter of animals and was well received in the public reviews when he began to exhibit at the

Paris Salon The Salon (), or rarely Paris Salon (French: ''Salon de Paris'' ), beginning in 1667 was the official art exhibition of the in Paris. Between 1748 and 1890 it was arguably the greatest annual or biennial art event in the Western world. At the ...

that same year, with a ''Dog Attacking Geese'', now at the

Louvre The Louvre ( ), or the Louvre Museum ( ), is a national art museum in Paris, France, and one of the most famous museums in the world. It is located on the Rive Droite, Right Bank of the Seine in the city's 1st arrondissement of Paris, 1st arron ...

. He continued to exhibit annually until 1789, though his attempts at the grand manner of history painting, considered the noblest

genre Genre () is any style or form of communication in any mode (written, spoken, digital, artistic, etc.) with socially agreed-upon conventions developed over time. In popular usage, it normally describes a category of literature, music, or other fo ...

, were not met with approval. The most important of his paintings were his morceau de réception, the ''Fox among the Chickens'' (

San Francisco San Francisco, officially the City and County of San Francisco, is a commercial, Financial District, San Francisco, financial, and Culture of San Francisco, cultural center of Northern California. With a population of 827,526 residents as of ...

California Palace of the Legion of Honor The Legion of Honor, formally known as the California Palace of the Legion of Honor, is an art museum located in San Francisco, on the West Side of the city. Located in Lincoln Park, the Legion of Honor is a component of the Fine Arts Museum ...

), ''The Dairymaid'' (Paris,

Musée Cognacq-Jay The Musée Cognacq-Jay () is a museum located in the Hôtel Donon in the 3rd arrondissement of Paris. The museum's collection was formed between 1900 and 1925 by Théodore-Ernest Cognacq and his wife Marie-Louise Jaÿ, founders of La Samarit ...

). Huet is equally known for his designs for the

decorative arts ] The decorative arts are arts or crafts whose aim is the design and manufacture of objects that are both beautiful and functional. This includes most of the objects for the interiors of buildings, as well as interior design, but typically excl ...

. He provided scenic vignettes to be printed by copperplate on cottons at the manufacture of ''toiles de Jouy'' directed by Oberkampf. Lengths of these may be seen at The Detroit Institute of Arts, the Musée des Arts Décoratifs, Paris, Musée des Arts Décoratifs, the

Victoria and Albert Museum The Victoria and Albert Museum (abbreviated V&A) in London is the world's largest museum of applied arts, decorative arts and design, housing a permanent collection of over 2.8 million objects. It was founded in 1852 and named after Queen ...

, the Metropolitan Museum of Art and many other institutions. His ink-and-wash drawings and studies of animals and children are also admired. In the 1780s he provided tapestry

cartoon A cartoon is a type of visual art that is typically drawn, frequently Animation, animated, in an realism (arts), unrealistic or semi-realistic style. The specific meaning has evolved, but the modern usage usually refers to either: an image or s ...

s for the manufacture at

Beauvais Beauvais ( , ; ) is a town and Communes of France, commune in northern France, and prefecture of the Oise Departments of France, département, in the Hauts-de-France Regions of France, region, north of Paris. The Communes of France, commune o ...

. A suite of thirteen hangings of

pastoral The pastoral genre of literature, art, or music depicts an idealised form of the shepherd's lifestyle – herding livestock around open areas of land according to the seasons and the changing availability of water and pasture. The target au ...

s was in the Isaac de Camondo bequest to the Louvre. In 1790 he remained attached to the reorganized and combined

tapestry Tapestry is a form of Textile arts, textile art which was traditionally Weaving, woven by hand on a loom. Normally it is used to create images rather than patterns. Tapestry is relatively fragile, and difficult to make, so most historical piece ...

manufacture of

Gobelins Gobelins may refer to: * Gobelin, the name of family of dyers, established from the 15th century * Gobelins Manufactory, a historic tapestry factory in Paris, France * The 13th arrondissement of Paris, an administrative district containing the Go ...

and Beauvais.

References

J-B Huet on-line
*

Notes

{{DEFAULTSORT:Huet, Jean-Baptiste 1745 births 1811 deaths 18th-century French painters French male painters 19th-century French painters 19th-century French male artists 18th-century French male artists