Historical Sketches of Kentucky by Lewis Collins, Maysville, KY. and J. A.
& U. P. James, Cincinnati, 1847. Volume 1. Reprinted 1968.  Mercer County.
Artists of Kentucky, pages 619-620.

MATTHEW HARRIS JOUETT, still familiarly known to many old residents as
"Matt. Jouett" - the greatest and most distinguished painter of Kentucky,
and equalled by few in America - dates back his ancestry and name to
pioneer Kentucky.  His uncle, after whom he was named, MATTHEW JOUETT, was
clerk of the first legislative body assembled west of the Allegheny
mountains, May 23, 1775; returned, soon after, to Virginia; was a captain
of the Virginia continental line in the Revolution, and killed during the
war or died before 1784.  His father, Capt. JOHN (or "Jack") JOUETT (born
Dec. 7, 1754, died March 1, 1822, aged 67) was also a Revolutionary
officer, and the recipient from the legislature of Virginia of an elegant
sword, for gallantry and boldness in preventing the capture of that body
(then in session at Charlottsville) by the raiding British Col. Tarleton;
came to Mercer co., Ky., in 1782; was married to Sally Robards, Aug. 20,
1784; a delegate from Mercer co. to the Virginia legislature, in 1787
(five years before Kentucky was made a state), and again in 1790; a member
of the convention at Danville, in 1788; a representative in the Kentucky
legislature from Mercer county in 1792, from Woodford county, in 1795,
'96, and '97, and probably also from Bath county, where he soon after made
his home.  He was a man of note in his day, "physically and mentally a
man;" full of humor, fond of fun, a high liver, remarkable for
hospitality, the associate and companion of Clay, Jackson, Joe Daveiss,
Breckinridge, and the Marshalls, indeed of all the great men of early
Kentucky.
     Matt. Jouett, the painter, was born in Mercer co., Ky., April 22,
1788, and died in Fayette co., Aug. 10, 1827, when only 39.  He was
educated with great care, for the law - in strong faith and pride that his
mental adaptation, personal appearance of rare beauty, and remarkable
power in the control of men betokened a brilliant career.  He studied
fathfully, acquired the law of the books as if by intuition, and attempted
the practice, with rich promise of name and fortune; but it was to please
his friends solely, and to him a spiritless life.  From the pages of his
law books fancies took form, and the edges of his memoranda beamed with
the faces of his friends; his destiny was ART, and no pleading, or
coaxing, or discouragement, or depression could keep in long in abeyance. 
The applause of the former had no such fascination for him as the
beautiful creations of his own free fancy.  It mattered not that the
profession of painting was then little esteemed in Kentucky; there was to
him a world of pleasure in its pursuit, higher and purer and sweeter than
any other calling afforded.  Striking likenesses, wrought without effort,
and most exquisite forms teemed from his pen and pencil.  Such powers
could not be curbed in any rigid form, such inspiration was too natural to
be fettered.  He began to paint without a master.  And if the opinions of
such men as Healy, Frazer, and Bush - art men themselves, of no mean
standing - are of weight, his portraits are to-day superior to those of
any artist America has produced, and rank with the best of the old
masters.
     In 1812, war for a little while was more exciting than art, and the
sword than the pencil.  Jouett entered the army, and served with gallantry
thorough at least one campaign in the then Northwest.  After the war,
which was to him a kind of holiday, Jouett began to paint with renewed
zest.  Wonderfully successful as a self-taught man, he yet felt the need
of a master; and in 1816-17 spent six months in Boston, under the
instruction of Gilbert Stuart, at that time the most world-renowned and
esteemed of American portrait painters.  Tuckerman, in his Book of the
Artists, says Jouett was a favorite pupil of Stuart's.  From other sources
it is known that an intimacy sprang up between these men of genius which
lasted through life.  No man more admired and more thoroughly appreciated
the peculiar excellences and promise of Jouett - the glimpses of
character, if not the most outspoken character, and the brilliancy and
beauty of color, so remarkable in his portraits.
     It has been said that Matt. Jouett was to Kentucky what Rubens was to
Flanders.  He was more.  Kentucky, at the time Jouett painted, was almost
a wilderness - the people unprepared for art, indifferent to its
influences, with no masters to teach, no models to work from, no styles to
study.  Rubens had every advantage - in association, masters, art
galleries, and an art-loving people, who were able and willing to pay for
good works.  Rubens was a sensualist, with all his accomplishments, and
not beyond reproach.  Jouett was a startling genius, of the most marked
character; a thoroughly manly and pure man, with a fine musical education;
full of poetry, and one of the most brilliant talkers of his day.  Rubens
painted to old age; Jouett did not begin painting in earnest until he was
25, and was cut down at 39.  Rubens knew by daily contact what the
Renaissance in art had accomplished, for he studied from the best
pictures; Jouett never saw old masters' works, and could only dream of
their glories.  And it is astonishing that in the early days of Kentucky
an artist should have been born, who, without breathing the Italian air or
seeing the realistic productions of the Dutch, should have instinctively
produced portraits which - for richness of coloring, mellow subdued tones,
and strong character portrayal - stand to-day equal to the best works of
European art in that direction.
     Mr. Jouett was thoroughly the ideal artist, highly informed, of
poetic temperament, vivid imagination, and most sympathetic nature.  No
wonder that such a genial and gentle disposition was admired and sought
after by such lights as Clay, Crittenden, Daviess, the Marshalls, and
Breckinridges.  And no wonder that among his best pictures were those of
some of these very friends - Henry Clay, Joseph Hamilton Daviess, John J.
Crittenden, and James Morrison.  To these should be added the full length
portrait of the Marquis La Fayette, which belongs to the state of
Kentucky, and adorns the hall of the house of representatives, to the
right of the speaker's chair; also, those of Gov. Isaac Shelby, Gov.
Robert P. Letcher, Rev. Horace Holley, D. D., besides others in families
at Vicksburg, Natchez, and New Orleans, where he spent several winters.

Jouett Tarleton Robards Clay Jackson Daviess Breckinridge Marshall Healy
Frazer Bush Stuart Tuckerman Rubens Morrison La_Fayette Shelby Letcher
Holley
=
VA Danville-Boyle-KY Woodford-KY Bath-KY Fayette-KY MS Flanders LA

http://www.rootsweb.com/~kygenweb/kybiog/mercer/jouett.mh.txt