Jean Le Juge and his Family

Rigaud, a family friend, painted this portrait as a gift. The husband is slightly apart, befitting his status, yet gazes and gestures create relationships among the sitters, and between them and us. Rigaud carefully crafted his sitters’ self-presentation in artful and sumptuous portraits, paying particular attention to the material signs of status – the elaborate props of clothing and decor. Rigaud would later marry Le Juge’s widow, Élisabeth. He prized this canvas and, years later, painted a self-portrait showing him in the act of creating it. Frame: carved wood, gilded. France, second-half 17th century