Jean, a great improver of the art of painting in enamel, was the son of a sculptor and architect, and was born at Geneva in 1607. A series of incidents gradually led him to his famous improvement. Becoming an apprentice to a jeweller named Bordier, he was employed in painting enamels for jewels. His success soon became so great, that his master set him to draw miniature portraits on the same substance. Several colours were the only things wanting to enable the two to carry on their new profession. They found some of these colours on going and making application to the chemists of Italy. Then repairing to London, they obtained the rest from Sir Theodore Mayern, first physician to Charles I. Having thus perfected the art of painting portraits in enamel, Petitot entered upon a successful career as an artist. Many of Van Dyck's pictures were given to him to be copied; that illustrious painter himself became his friend and adviser; the royal family sat to him; and the king attached him to his person, and gave him apartments in Whitehall. Even after the outbreak of the civil war had blighted his prospects in England, his prosperity still continued. He was retained for some time in the suite of the exiled Prince of Wales. He was then taken into the service of the French King, Louis XIV., and introduced into a new scene of professional success. A pension was bestowed upon him, and a lodging in the Louvre was allotted to him. He was employed in copying some of the celebrated pictures of Mignard and Lebrun, and in painting the portraits of King Louis XIV., and the Queens Anne of Austria and Maria Theresa. This sunshine of court favour lasted until he had amassed an immense fortune, and nearly reached the age of fourscore. The path of Petitot then began to be beset by troubles. Being a Protestant, he was alarmed at the revocation of the edict of Nantes, and became eager to return to his native country. On attempting to escape without the consent of the king, he was thrown into prison, and the eloquent Bossuet was employed to convert him to Popery. It was only after his health was undermined by imprisonment, and the ineffectual attempts to make him a proselyte, that his release was obtained. He had not been long in Switzerland when a stroke of apoplexy cut him off in 1691, in the act of painting a portrait of his wife. Fifty-six of the portraits of Petitot are preserved in the museum of the Louvre. His masterpiece, however, is the full-length portrait of Rachel de Rovigny, Countess of Southampton, in the collection of the Duke of Devonshire.