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From The Kentucky Encyclopedia -
Matthew Harris Jouett, one of the
most significant antebellum portraitists of the South, was born on April 22 in
1787 or 1788 near Harrodsburg
in Mercer County, Kentucky.
He was one of twelve children born to Capt. John and Sallie
(Robards) Jouett. When Jouett was five, his family moved to Woodford County. He
enrolled in Transylvania
University in Lexington
in 1804. After graduating with honors four years later, Jouett began to study
law with Judge George
M. Bibb of the Kentucky appellate court in Frankfort.
In 1812 Jouett enlisted in the 3d
Mounted Regiment of the Kentucky Volunteers. He was appointed first lieutenant
and paymaster of the 28th U.S. Infantry and on July 13, 1814, was promoted to a
captain. He resigned his position on January 20, 1815. Jouett decided not to
practice law but to follow his ambition to become a portrait painter and
miniaturist, based in Lexington.
After studying with Gilbert Stuart in Boston from July through October 1816, he
was able to double his price for portraits.
Jouett was unable to make a living
in Kentucky, however, and from 1817 until his death, he spent winters in New
Orleans, Natchez, and other southern cities along the Mississippi River,
painting portraits of notable citizens. The New Orleans directory of 1824 lists
Jouett as a portrait painter with a studio at 49 Canal Street. From 1817 to
1825 Jouett's Lexington
studio was in the Kentucky Hotel on Short Street. In June 1817 Jouett arranged
an exhibition of his paintings and those of other artists for the benefit of
the Fayette Hospital.
A total of 334 portraits and
miniatures are attributed to Jouett between the years 1816 and his death. One
of the most celebrated is that of General Lafayette. He painted several
portraits of Henry Clay
, one of which hangs in Ashland, the Clay estate. Other
subjects included Gen. George
Rogers Clark , Gov. Isaac
Shelby (1792-96, 1812-16), Sen. Isham Talbot , Dr.
W.C. Galt, Asa Blanchard
, Robert Crittenden, and Dr. Horace
Holley . In 1826 Jouett maintained a studio in Louisville as well as Lexington.
As popular as Jouett's portraits
were in the South, he did not become known nationally until his paintings of Gen. Charles Scott and John Grimes were shown in
the Chicago Exposition in 1893. Jouett's first one-man exhibition was a retrospective
held at the J.B. Speed
Art Museum in Louisville
between February 19 and March 4, 1928. Jouett's paintings are owned by the Filson Club, the Kentucky Historical Society,
and the Speed Museum
, as well as numerous private collectors.
Jouett married Margaret Henderson
Allen of Fayette County on May 25, 1812; they had nine children. Jouett died at
his home outside Lexington
on August 10, 1827, and was buried in the family burial ground of his
father-in- law, William Allen. Around the turn of the century, the bodies of
Jouett and his wife were reburied in Louisville's Cave Hill Cemetery.
Selected
Sources from UK Libraries:
Strode-Jackson, Arnold N. S. Kentucky Heyday, 1787-1827; the Life and times of Kentucky's Foremost Portrait Painter. 1st Ed.]. ed. New York: Vantage, 1956. Print.
ND237.J8 S75, available, Fine Arts
Library
Martin, Mary Farmer Rodgers. Catalogue of All Known Paintings by Matthew Harris Jouett. Louisville, 1939. Print.
759.1 Sp32, Special Collections
Research Center
Jonas, Edward A. Matthew Harris Jouett, Kentucky Portrait Painter (1787-1827). Louisville, Ky.: J.B. Speed Memorial Museum, 1938. Print. SOLINET/ASERL Cooperative Microfilming Project (NEH PS-20317) ; SOL MN02173.02 KUK.
ND237.J8
J6, Fine Arts Library
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