Copy after Hyacinthe Rigaud
The story
From 1681 until his death in 1743, Hyacinthe Rigaud kept an account book of his Paris studio, year by year. Next to each sitter's name stands the price of the portrait, and after the originals come the copies made that same year, each with its own price. Demand for repeats began almost at once, from the families and friends of his sitters.
When he was painting close to 40 portraits a year, he could not make those copies himself, and the book names the assistants who did. Other copies were made later, by painters who never met him.
Copy after Hyacinthe Rigaud is the label for such a picture. The composition is his and the brushwork belongs to someone else, usually someone whose name is lost. The label makes no claim that Rigaud ever touched the canvas. His account book survives in manuscript in the library of the Institut de France in Paris.
