Hyacinthe Rigaud’s may have eventually become a painter to the stars, but his beginnings had little to do with painting.

Hyacinthe Rigaud started out as a tailor, no less, as tailoring was in his blood. Ol’ Pop Rigaud had been a tailor too, but had also been known as a painter, alongside many others of Hyacinthe’s family members. So, tailoring or painting had been the family profession and looks like Hyacinthe’s choice of the latter helped him bring honor to the family name. Way to live up to your noble ancestry, pal. Also, his early dabblings in dressmaking explain why he paid so much attention to couture in his portraits.

Upon choosing painting as a career, Rigaud trained in Montpellier and Lyon. But it was his move to Paris, and also his subsequent switch to portrait painting, which bought him fame and glory. While he’d been training in Lyon, Rigaud brushed up on his portrait painting talents with all those cloth merchants who wanted their pictures made; his close attention to fancy attire made him every aristocrat’s favorite painter. After all, if you’re gonna blow all those ducats on your couture, you might as well spend a little more and get someone who does justice to it in a painting. Kind of like selecting the right photographer for your spring line.

In fact, Rigaud had so many loaded peeps lining up to have their portraits made, that he had to hire a little extra help for his studio! Probably not the worst job in those days to be working as an assistant in the studio of the painter favored by the King. Speaking of whom, King Louis XIV and his coronation portrait from 1701 is Rigaud’s real claim to fame. He had some other stellar work too, including some religious subjects, but this one definitely set the standards for all kingly portraits to come.