Hyacinthe's father, Josep Matias Pere Ramon Rigau, was a tailor (
sastre in Catalan) in the parish of Saint-Jean de Perpignan, "as well as a painter", since in their studios were to be found "many prints and books treating on the art of painting, and other things, such as brushes and palettes for painting". Working for the collège Saint-Éloi in his city since 1560, and acting as representative of its guild of painters and gilders, on 22 November 1630 Jacinto
major and other gilders and colleagues participated in the development of the statutes and minutes of the city's collège Saint-Luc . Honorat
minor is generally identified as the painter of
The Canonisation of Saint Hyacinthe, formerly in Perpignan's Dominican convent and now at Joch, the tabernacle of the church of
Palau-del-Vidre (28 March 1609) and the retable at Montalba near
Amélie-les-Bains. The father of Honorat
minor is generally identified as the painter of the retable of
Saint-Ferréol (1623) in the église Saint-Jacques de Perpignan and formerly in the couvent des Minimes, whilst Honorat
major is usually identified as the painter of the paintings of the retable of the église Saint-Jean-l'Évangéliste at
Peyrestortes. On 13 March 1647, Hyacinthe's father Matias Rigau married Thérèse Faget (1634–1655), daughter of a carpenter. Widowed shortly after, he decided to speedily remarry, to Maria Serra, daughter of a Perpignan textile merchant (
pentiner in Catalan), on 20 December 1655. In 1665, he acquired a house "en lo carrer de las casas cremades" (now rue de l'Incendie, near the cathedral) and received the income from a parcel of vineyards in the Bompas territory. La qualité toute relative des œuvres de cet artiste ne permet pas d’y trouver les clés d’un apprentissage, même si son fils, Antoine Guerra "le Jeune" (1666–1711), reprendra à son compte les formules picturales fixées plus tard par Rigaud, à l'instar de son
Portrait du colonel Albert Manuel récemment acquis par le
musée Hyacinthe Rigaud de Perpignan. L’inventaire après décès du jeune Guerra atteste cependant des liens existant entre ces familles de peintres, à l'exemple du "portret du sieur Rang de Montpellier en ovalle" (probablement
Antoine Ranc car Jean était déjà établi à Paris) et "deux portrets sur papier l’un du sieur Rigaud peintre et l’autre de damoiselle Rigaud avec leurs quadres dorés". La question se pose alors de savoir s'il s'agit de Hyacinthe ou de Gaspard, et la "demoiselle Rigaud" est difficilement identifiable. À la mort de son père, en 1669, "Jyacintho Rigau" (dont le nom francisé en Hyacinthe Rigaud ne tarde pas à apparaître) est confié par sa mère aux bons soins du doreur carcassonnais Pierre Chypolt. Les archives départementales des Pyrénées-Orientales conservent encore le contrat d’apprentissage passé entre ce dernier et Maria Serra. Ce contrat explique la grande connaissance du métier de doreur, dont le futur Rigaud témoignera à plusieurs reprises, notamment dans sa correspondance avec le marquis aixois
Gaspard de Gueidan, au cours des années 1720–30. Si l’anecdote selon laquelle Rigaud aurait été le protégé d’un hypothétique comte de Ros dont il aurait prit la particule "Rigaud y Ros" est à écarter, l’
Abrégé de la vie du peintre, rédigé en 1716 par l’académicien honoraire Henry Van Hulst, est une référence plus fiable. Cette
Vie fut composée afin de contenter le désir du grand duc de Toscane
Cosme III de Médicis qui souhaitait obtenir de chaque peintre, dont il possédait l'
autoportrait, une
biographie circonstanciée. Dans ce témoignage direct, non exempt d’approximations, aucune formation picturale n’est mentionnée avant le départ de Rigaud, dans les années 1675, pour
Montpellier. Avant cette date, le métier de son père forme probablement l’œil du jeune Hyacinthe à la science des drapés, des agencements et des couleurs. S’il est difficile d’attribuer à Hyacinthe Rigaud des œuvres de jeunesse, catalanes principalement, nul doute que certains tabernacles ou autres peintures murales pourront, avec le temps, lui revenir. Daniel Gronström, sujet du roi de Suède et l’un de ses représentants à Paris, semble pourtant réduire cette diversification en écrivant, dès 1693, à
Nicodème Tessin le Jeune, architecte des bâtiments du roi
Charles XI : "[Rigaud] dit qu’il est très capable de peindre des plafonds, des tribunes, etc. Il en a peu faits". --->
Journey to Lyon playing the
musette" (
Gaspard de Gueidan en joueur de musette, 1738),
Musée Granet,
Aix-en-Provence. Little is known about Rigaud's activities in
Lyon, due to the lack of surviving documents. However, as per tradition, artists from
Montpellier had strong ties with this city, as had, for example, Samuel Boissière who was trained in there, in Lyon. The identity of Rigaud's future depicted models shows that he worked for the city's
cloth merchants, whose flourishing trade had long since given the city its profitable income. Even if they had only been registered from 1681 onwards, the date when he moved to
Paris, his "youthful" portraits were probably
pre-dated, like those of Antoine Domergue, the king's councillor and provincial governor of Lyon, in 1686, and "Mr Sarazin de Lion", of a famous dynasty of bankers of
Swiss origins, in 1685. Rigaud's portrait of Jean de Brunenc, painted in 1687, a silk merchant, banker and consul of Lyon, assembles all the ingredients for which the painter was later successful. In her thesis on the
engravers from the
Drevet family, Gilberte Levallois-Clavel revealed certain aspects of the private relations between Rigaud and Pierre Drevet; their friendship came about at the beginning of the 1700s, after the painter produced a portrait of the engraver, in which he depicted himself as well. In 1681, when Hyacinthe Rigaud decided to move to Paris, inspired by Drevet who was also attracted to the capital, he had already established a good reputation amongst the local clientele, from Switzerland to
Aix-en-Provence. Going back to the artist's biography,
Dezallier d'Argenville states that one of Rigaud's main reasons for his 1695 voyage was to paint his mother's portrait: "He painted her from many angles, and had her marble bust made by the notable
Coysevox, which was his cabinet's ornament for the rest of his life". In his first will, dated 30 May 1707, the artist left the bust to the
Grand Dauphin,
Louis XIV's son, though the sculpture would then be left to the Academy which explains its presence in the
Louvre. Also in the document, Rigaud bequeathed the portrait containing the two profiles of Maria Serra to the elder son of his brother
Gaspard, named Hyacinthe. In reality, Rigaud painted a second painting, bearing the three stances presented to Coysevox: an oval painting kept in a private collection, copied by
Théodore Géricault, in
Dijon, and the subject of one of Drevet's engravings. He also applied sketches of his sister Claire, accompanied by her husband and their first daughter, to the canvas. The year 1695 also saw the production of two versions of
Christ expiant sur la Croix, with a distinct
Flemish influence, proof of Rigaud's rare incursion into the domain of historical depictions or the "great genre". He bequeathed his mother the first version which would then, at her death, be left to the Grands Augustins convent in
Perpignan, and gave the second, in 1722, to the
Dominican convent of his city of birth. In spring 1696, Hyacinthe Rigaud returned to Paris, where he painted one of his most important portraits of the year. This was in fact solicited by the
duke of Saint-Simon, to depict
Armand Jean le Bouthillier de Rancé, an abbot, using a skillful subterfuge that remains notable in the history of painting. In 1709, he was made a noble by his hometown of Perpignan. In 1727, he was made a knight of the
Order of Saint Michael. Following the death of
directeur Louis de Boullogne on 28 November 1733, Rigaud proposed that the four rectors of the Académie,
Nicolas de Largillière,
Claude-Guy Hallé,
Guillaume Coustou, and himself, rotate the post. This oligarchy would persist until the election of Coustou as sole director on 5 February 1735. Rigaud died in Paris on 29 December 1743 at the age of 84. P1050003 Paris II rue Louis-le-grand Hyacinthe Rigaud rwk.JPG|House. P1050004 Hyacinthe Rigaud plaque rue Louis-le-grand rwk.JPG|Plaque. ==Clientele==