François Clouet's highest capabilities may be traced in the water-colour sketch at Chantilly which represents _Margot de France_,[123] youngest daughter of Catherine de Medicis, in her girlhood. It is exhibited in the Psyche Gallery and is considered one of the gems of the collection. Since correct drawing from life was the artist's first thought this preparatory sketch is superior to the painting, also in all probability executed by the artist himself, which a rare chance has brought into the same gallery. This latter is supposed to be the actual portrait sent by Catherine to her daughter Elizabeth, wife of Philip II of Spain, which the Infante Don Carlos admired so much. Comparing the portrait with those of the other marriageable princesses of Europe, he exclaimed, "This little one is the prettiest of all"; whereat Elizabeth de Valois in a letter to her mother writes: "_Le Prince était demeuré en extase devant le miroir délicieuse de la mignonne_." Clouet has painted the little Princess in a robe of delicate silver tissue adorned with pearls; more pearls are round her neck and intertwined amid the tresses of her hair. Her expression displays that _joie de vivre_ which is known to have been one of her most marked characteristics throughout her whole life. It is, however, in the sketch that the high qualities of François Clouet as a portrait-painter specially assert themselves. Here he appears as a refined Holbein, endowed with graceful and elegant French qualities. Light and shadow are barely perceptible but are nevertheless sufficiently present to produce the necessary plastic feeling. The costume and the jewels, though reproduced with closest accuracy, do not mar the harmony, nor do they overpower the clearly defined features which retain their fullest importance and prominence. [Illustration: Plate LXV. Photo. Giraudon. ELISABETH OF AUSTRIA, QUEEN OF FRANCE. François Clouet (About 1567). Bibl. Nat. Paris. Photo. Giraudon. JOSSINE DE PISSELEU, NICKNAMED HEGLI. François Clouet (About 1542). Musée Condé. _To face page 234._]