Jean (or Jehan) Fouquet (ca.1420–1481),

 was a French painter and miniaturist. A master of panel painting and manuscript illumination, and the apparent inventor of the portrait miniature, he is considered one of the most important painters from the period between the late Gothic and early Renaissance. He was the first French artist to travel to Italy and experience first-hand the early Italian Renaissance.  During the 1450s he began working at the French court, where he counted kings Charles VII and his successor Louis XI among his many patrons.