Artist

Jean Pierre Henri Elouis

French, born Caen, France 1755-died Caen, France 1840
Also known as
  • Henry Elouis
  • Henry Elouiz
  • Jean Henri Elouis
  • Henri Elouis
Born
Caen, France
Died
Caen, France
Active in
  • Maryland, United States
  • Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States
Biography

Jean Pierre Henri Elouis immigrated to the United States during the French Revolution, and began calling himself Henry Elouis. He worked primarily in Maryland and Philadelphia between 1791 and 1799, and during that time taught drawing to Eleanor Custis, Martha Washington’s granddaughter. For the next five years, Elouis traveled in South America as a draftsman with the German naturalist Baron Alexander von Humboldt. Elouis returned to France in 1807, and in 1814 was appointed curator of the Caen museum in Normandy.