Jean-Baptiste Marie Huet (

Paris Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. S ...

, 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 (, also ), less commonly Roccoco or Late Baroque, is an exceptionally ornamental and theatrical style of architecture, art and decoration which combines asymmetry, scrolling curves, gilding, white and pastel colours, sculpted moulding, ...

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 Evangelist Luke, the patron saint of artists, who was identi ...

, the ''Académie de Saint-Luc'', Paris, who was working in the 1760s. Huet’s interest in printmaking and his acquaintance with

Gilles Demarteau Gilles Demarteau or Gilles Demarteau the Elder (19 January 1722, in Liège – 31 July 1776, in Paris) was an etcher, engraver and publisher who was active in Paris for his entire career.Madeleine Barbin. "Demarteau, Gilles." Grove Art Online. O ...

, 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 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 and became a leading student ...

, 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 secondary education, secondary or tertiary education, tertiary higher education, higher learning (and generally also research or honorary membershi ...

, 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 (french: Salon), or rarely Paris Salon (French: ''Salon de Paris'' ), beginning in 1667 was the official art exhibition of the Académie des Beaux-Arts in Paris. Between 1748 and 1890 it was arguably the greatest annual or biennial art ...

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

Louvre The Louvre ( ), or the Louvre Museum ( ), is the world's most-visited museum, and an historic landmark in Paris, France. It is the home of some of the best-known works of art, including the ''Mona Lisa'' and the ''Venus de Milo''. A central l ...

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

genre Genre () is any form or type 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 for ...

, 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 (; Spanish language, Spanish for "Francis of Assisi, Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the List of Ca ...

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 in San Francisco, California. Located in Lincoln Park, the Legion of Honor is a component of the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, which also ...

), ''The Dairymaid'' (Paris,

Musée Cognacq-Jay The Musée Cognacq-Jay ( en, Cognacq-Jay Museum) is a museum located in the Hôtel Donon in the 3rd arrondissement at 8 rue Elzévir, Paris, France. It is open daily except Monday; admission is free. The nearest Metro stations are Saint-Paul ...

). Huet is equally known for his designs for the

decorative arts ] The decorative arts are arts or crafts whose object is the design and manufacture of objects that are both beautiful and functional. It includes most of the arts making objects for the interiors of buildings, and interior design, but not usual ...

. 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 a
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 (often abbreviated as the V&A) in London is the world's largest museum of applied arts, decorative arts and design, housing a permanent collection of over 2.27 million objects. It was founded in 1852 and nam ...

, th
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 animated, in an unrealistic or semi-realistic style. The specific meaning has evolved over time, but the modern usage usually refers to either: an image or series of images ...

s for the manufacture at

Beauvais Beauvais ( , ; pcd, Bieuvais) is a city and commune in northern France, and prefecture of the Oise département, in the Hauts-de-France region, north of Paris. The commune of Beauvais had a population of 56,020 , making it the most populous ...

. A suite of thirteen hangings of

pastoral A pastoral lifestyle is that of shepherds herding livestock around open areas of land according to seasons and the changing availability of water and pasture. It lends its name to a genre of literature, art, and music (pastorale) that depicts ...

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 art, traditionally woven by hand on a loom. Tapestry is weft-faced weaving, in which all the warp threads are hidden in the completed work, unlike most woven textiles, where both the warp and the weft threads may ...

manufacture of Gobelins and Beauvais.

References

J-B Huet on-line
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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