# Hyacinthe Rigaud artist context and auction value notes

Canonical page: https://appraisily.com/artist/hyacinthe-rigaud/
Profile generated: 2026-05-23T21:10:47.937Z
Quality: high confidence, strong sources

## Artist identity

- Birth date: 1659-07-18
- Death date: 1743-12-29
- Nationality: French, Catalan
- Movements: Baroque
- Common media: oil painting, pastel, drawing, engraving

## About Hyacinthe Rigaud

Hyacinthe Rigaud (1659–1743), born Jacint Rigau-Ros i Serra in Perpignan, was a Catalan-French Baroque painter who became the preeminent portraitist of the French court under Louis XIV and Louis XV. Trained in Montpellier and Paris, Rigaud was admitted to the Académie Royale de Peinture et de Sculpture in 1687 and built a thriving studio that produced hundreds of portraits of royalty, aristocrats, clergy, and wealthy financiers across Europe. His 1701 state portrait of Louis XIV in coronation robes set the template for royal portraiture for generations. Rigaud combined Flemish attention to textile and flesh detail with a grand, authoritative compositional sense that defined the image of absolute monarchy. Collectors encounter his work as original paintings, workshop variants, preparatory drawings, and reproductive engravings after his compositions.

## Common works and media

Oil-on-canvas portraits constitute the largest share of Rigaud's output, ranging from full-length state portraits to half-length and bust-length formats. Pastel portraits and chalk drawings on paper are also part of his oeuvre and appear in Old Master Drawings sales. Engravings made after his paintings by printmakers such as Gérard Edelinck and Pierre Drevet circulated widely and are collected as works on paper. Collectors may also encounter workshop replicas of popular compositions, especially the celebrated Louis XIV portrait and its variants.

## Market and appraisal context

Rigaud's portraits appear regularly in Old Master sales at major auction houses. Value depends heavily on whether a work is an autograph painting by Rigaud himself, a studio collaboration, or a later copy after a known composition. Sitter identity matters: portraits of named historical figures, especially royalty and high-ranking nobility, tend to attract stronger interest. Provenance tracing back to the sitter's family or an aristocratic collection is a significant value factor. The online catalogue raisonné maintained by Stéphan Perreau is a key reference for attribution. Preparatory drawings and pastels are less common at auction and may warrant specialist review for condition and authenticity.

## Appraisily data basis

Appraisily artist pages combine researched artist identity with auction records, auction-house context, sale dates, realized prices, and comparable lots when those records are available. For Hyacinthe Rigaud, identity data is grounded in the RKD Netherlands Institute for Art History, Getty ULAN, VIAF, Wikidata, and the dedicated catalogue raisonné published by Stéphan Perreau.

## Sources

- RKD Netherlands Institute for Art History: https://rkd.nl/en/explore/artists/66892
- Wikidata: https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q49898
- Hyacinthe Rigaud catalogue raisonné: http://www.hyacinthe-rigaud.com/
- Getty Vocabulary Program: https://vocab.getty.edu/page/ulan/500024827
- VIAF: https://viaf.org/viaf/71428427/
- Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hyacinthe_Rigaud
- Library of Congress: https://id.loc.gov/authorities/names/no91019377