Portrait of Louis XIV in coronation costume, French school of the 18th cent

Portrait of Louis XIV in coronation costume, French school of the 18th century after the portrait of Hyacinthe Rigaud from 1701

Linen canvas 92 cm by 73 cm
Superb old frame of 110 cm by 91 cm

Louis XIV at 63 years old on this famous portrait which was taken over by the artists of the Rigaud workshop and a few other painters of the 18th century

Yacinthe Rigaud (1659-1743)

Hyacinthe Rigaud, born in Perpignan on July 18, 1659 and died in Paris on December 29, 1743, is a French painter specializing in portraiture. Born in the former province of Catalonia (his real name was in Catalan Jacint Rigau-Ros i Serra), he will spend most of his career in Paris. Noticed by Louis XIV, whom he painted in a now famous portrait, Hyacinthe Rigaud became very much courted by all the nobility of France and Europe, while keeping a very loyal regional and local clientele.
The young Hyacinthe Rigaud trained with Antoine Ranc (in the company of Jean Ranc, son of Antoine) in Montpellier in the 1671s, before moving to Lyon four years later. It was in these two cities that he became familiar with Flemish, Dutch and Italian painting, that of Rubens, Van Dyck, Rembrandt or Titian, whose works he later collected.
Arrived in Paris in 1681, he obtained the Prix de Rome in 1682, but did not make the trip to Rome, on the advice of Charles Le Brun. Received at the Royal Academy of Painting and Sculpture in 1700, he climbed all the levels of this institution until his resignation in 1735.
According to the French art writer Louis Hourticq, “Rigaud, in dying, leaves a gallery of great characters with whom our imagination now populates the Hall of Mirrors; Rigaud is necessary for the glory of Louis XIV and he participates in this influence of a reign whose majesty he has established. "Real" photographs ", faces that Diderot described as" letters of recommendation written in a language common to all men ".
Rigaud's paintings now populate the largest museums in the world. His work is considerable, more than 1,500 known to date. The artist was able to count on a workshop rich in great names in painting, including Jean Ranc, Marc Nattier, Jean le Gros, Robert de Tournière… and many others (more than thirty throughout the period).