Gentleman's Portrait

Hyacinthe Rigauds Gentlemans Portrait from 1698 is a chalk drawing on blue laid paper that demonstrates the French Baroque portraitists mastery of the drawing medium as a preparatory tool for his celebrated state portraits. Rigaud, who became the premier peintre du roi and the most sought-after portraitist in France, producing the iconic portrait of Louis XIV in his coronation robes, approached drawing with the same grandeur and attention to detail that characterized his oil paintings. The gentleman depicted in this drawing is identified only by his social class, but the specificity of his features, the careful rendering of his wig and costume, and the psychological presence of his gaze all suggest a portrait from life rather than a generic study. The black chalk and gouache on blue paper is a combination that Rigaud and his contemporaries used for portrait drawings that approached the finish and presence of paintings, the blue paper providing a middle tone against which the black chalk creates shadows and the white chalk and lead white create highlights, producing a chiaroscuro effect that gives the drawing the three-dimensional illusion of a painting. The now-discolored lead white heightening was originally a brilliant white that would have made the sitters collar and cuffs stand out against the blue ground with the same dramatic contrast that Rigaud achieved in his oil portraits. The year 1698 places this drawing at the beginning of Rigauds most productive period, when he was establishing the portrait style that would define the visual image of the French aristocracy for the next half century.

Rigauds portrait drawings are essential documents for understanding the working methods of the most influential portraitist of the French Baroque and for the history of aristocratic portraiture in Europe. The Gentlemans Portrait exemplifies the combination of grandeur and specificity that made Rigauds drawings as sought after as his paintings and established the template for the state portrait throughout Europe.

A black chalk and gouache portrait drawing by Rigaud on blue paper with white heightening, demonstrating the Baroque portraitists mastery of chiaroscuro drawing as a preparatory tool for his celebrated state portraits and establishing the visual template for French aristocratic portraiture.