1659 -1743 · Perpignan, Paris and court portrait

Kings, prelates, artists and financiers find in Hyacinthe Rigaud a representation of rank where face, gesture, fabric and architecture compose a true grammar of power.

Hyacinthe Rigaud was born in Perpignan in 1659 into a family of textile artisans and received initial training in Montpellier, Lyon and Avignon. He arrived in Paris in 1681 and the following year won the first painting prize from the Royal Academy. On the advice of Charles Le Brun, he gave up the trip to Rome in order to devote himself to portraiture, a field in which his talent was already evident. Received at the Academy in 1684, he built an exceptional career which spanned the end of the reign of Louis XIV and the Regency until the reign of Louis XV. Received at the Academy in 1684, he built an exceptional career which spanned the end of the reign of Louis XIV and the Regency until the reign of Louis XV. Received at the Academy in 1684, he built an exceptional career which spanned the end of the reign of Louis XIV and the Regency until the reign of Louis XV. Received at the Academy in 1684, he built an exceptional career which spanned the end of the reign of Louis XIV and the Regency until the reign of Louis XV. Rigaud took up the breadth of the decor and the elegance of the pose from the European princely portrait, notably in Van D function of each model. Wig, armor, ecclesiastical dress, column, curtain, table and hand are never simple ornaments: they make visible charge, birth, merit and ambition. The Portrait of Louis XIV in coronation costume, painted in 1701, becomes the canonical image of absolute monarchy. The king, aged sixty-three, advances a dancer's leg under the immense fleurdelisé coat; The king, aged sixty-three, advances a dancer's leg under the immense fleurdelisé coat; The king, aged sixty-three, advances a dancer's leg under the immense fleurdelisé coat; the crown, scepter, sword, column of Force and relief of Justice convert the individual body into the incarnation of sovereignty. The workshop produces numerous repetitions and variants of this formula, while reserving the essential parts for the master, notably the head. Rigaud also knows how to completely modify the register. In Bossuet, the weight of the fabrics and the frontality accompany the authority of the speaker; in Jules Hardouin-Mansart, plans and attributes designate the architect; Lucas Schaub combines diplomatic elegance and psychological presence. His Book of Reason documents orders, prices, collaborators and replies, revealing a remarkably organized workshop enterprise. Portraitist of kings, but also of artists, bourgeois, diplomats and his own family, Rigaud died in Paris in 1743 after having elevated the ceremonial portrait to the rank of a great social story. The portraitist of kings, but also of artists, bourgeois, diplomats and his own family, Rigaud died in Paris in 1743 after having elevated the ceremonial portrait to the rank of great social story. The "Hyacinthe Rigaud" selection notably compares Louis XIV and Jacques-Bénigne Bossuet, bishop of Meaux. Its reading favors the story.

In Rigaud, the face remains a person while the costume becomes an institution: the portrait holds together psychology and representation of rank.