Jean Petitot, 17th-century French Painter of Miniatures

Jean Petitot

Miniature portrait of King Charles I

1649-50

Royal Collection, Great Britain

Jean Petitot
Miniature portrait of Queen Henrietta Maria
1640s
Royal Collection, Great Britain

Jean Petitot
Mininature portrait of Sir Theodore Turquet de Mayerne
(court physician to King Charles I)
1640s
National Portrait Gallery (U.K.)

Swiss-French miniaturist Jean Petitot (1607-1691) first established a reputation for himself at the English court under Charles I. After the execution of that rash and unfortunate king, Petitot transferred his talents to the French court. As events transpired, the two courts mingled and merged often enough in the crisscrossing that followed Cromwell's disruptions and the eventual Restoration.

Jean Petitot
Armand Charles de la Porte, duc de Meilleraye
1650s
Royal Collection, Great Britain

Jean Petitot
Portrait of a Man
late 17th century
Victoria & Albert Museum

Jean Petitot
Frances Stuart, Duchess of Richmond
1669
Victoria & Albert Musuem

Jean Petitot
Cardinal Armand Jean du Plessis, duc de Richelieu
1640s
Victoria & Albert Museum

Jean Petitot
Françoise, Comtesse de Grignan, daughter of Mme. de Sévigné
1670s
Victoria & Albert Museum

Mme. de Sévigné (below) became a paragon of French literature after the posthumous publication of her many, many letters to her only daughter, Mme. de Grignan (above). In Remembrance of Things Past Marcel Proust repeatedly describes the late 19th-century reading habits of his adored Parisian grandmother, usually absorbed in a volume of her own adored Mme. de Sévigné.

Jean Petitot
Marie de Rabutin-Chantal, Marquise de Sévigné
17th century
Victoria & Albert Museum

Jean Petitot
Françoise Louise, duchesse de La Vallière
1670s
Victoria & Albert Museum

Louise de la Vallière (above) was an official mistress of Louis XIV (below) during the 1660s. By the time Petitot's miniature was made in the 1670s, she had retired from service after bearing the King five illegitimate children.

Jean Petitot
Louis XIV
1670s
Victoria & Albert Museum

Jean Petitot
Jules Raymond, Cardinal Mazarin
c. 1661
Royal Collection, Great Britain

Jean Petitot
Hortense Mancini, duchesse de  Mazarin
c. 1675
Victoria & Albert Museum

Jean Petitot

Armand Charles de la Porte, duc de Meilleraye

late 17th century

Victoria & Albert Museum

Meilleraye (immediately above) was the aristocratic French husband chosen for Hortense Mancini, one of the three rich and beautiful Italian-born nieces of Cardinal Mazarin, France's first minister after 1642. Mazarin was deeply unpopular during his entire 20-year tenure. Hortense had many lovers, including Charles II of England  The position of the handsome duc de Meilleraye (also pictured in a second Petitot miniature at top) could never have been a comfortable one.