Matthew Harris Jouett

Self portrait

Matthew Harris Jouett (Mercer County, Kentucky, 22 April 1788 – Lexington, Kentucky, 10 August 1827) was an American portrait painter.

Jouett was the son of Sallie Robards and Jack Jouett, a hero of the American Revolution. The elder Jouett sent his son to Transylvania University and encouraged him to study law, but Matthew spent much of his time painting. The frustrated father commented "I sent Matthew to college to make a gentleman of him, and he has turned out to be nothing but a damned sign painter."

Jouett served as a lieutenant of the 28th infantry in the War of 1812. He was promoted to captain. After the war, he studied portraiture and went to Boston to study with Gilbert Stuart in 1816. Jouett painted in New Orleans, Natchez, Mississippi, and Kentucky. He was commissioned by the Kentucky legislature to paint a portrait of the Marquis de Lafayette. Jouett also painted Thomas Jefferson and the child Catherine Cornelia Prather.

Portrait of young Catherine Cornelia Prather by Matthew Jouett in an old book with partial list of other portraits by Jouett.

Jouett was the father of James Edward Jouett, a naval officer. James served with Admiral David Farragut and was immortalized in Farragut's famous quote "Damn the torpedoes! Four bells! Captain Drayton go ahead! Jouett full speed!"

Matthew Jouett is buried in Cave Hill Cemetery.

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  Thomas Jefferson

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  George Rogers Clark

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  Marquis de Lafayette

Further reading

• Encyclopedia of Kentucky. New York, New York: Somerset Publishers. 1987. pp. 151–152. ISBN 0-403-09981-1.
• Floyd, William Barrow (1980). Matthew Harris Jouett: Portraitist of the Ante-Bellum South. Lexington: Transylvania Printing Company.
• Mills, Sally. "Jouett, Matthew Harris." In Grove Art Online. Oxford Art Online, (accessed January 4, 2012; subscription required).
• Pennington, Estill Curtis; Miles, Ellen G. (2010). Lessons in Likeness: Portrait Painters in Kentucky and the Ohio River Valley, 1802-1920. Lexington: University Press of Kentucky. pp. 297–. ISBN 978-0-8131-2612-8. Retrieved 4 January 2012.
• "Large Crowd Attends Opening Of Eighteenth Art Exhibit: Handsome Canvases To Be Catalogued To-day For Ten-day Reviewal". Louisville, Kentucky: Courier-Journal. April 17, 1915. p. 7. Attendance at the eighteenth exhibit of the Louisville Art Association . . . . Two portraits by Jouett, the famous Kentucky artist, are shown. One is of former Secretary of Commerce Nagel. The other is of a little girl, Katherine Prather, who afterwards became the wife of the Rev. Dr. Edward Humphrey. The portrait . . . is referred to by members of the Humphrey family as "Little Grandmother."

External links

• Entry for Matthew Harris Jouett on the Union List of Artist Names
• Matthew Harris Jouett on Artcyclopedia (with links to works in various museum collections)
• Jack Jouett House Historic Site, Versailles, KY
• Entry for Matthew Jouett in the archive of the Collins Collection