Portrait of a man, by Joseph Vivien

Trained at the Royal Academy, Joseph Vivien began by painting history, and obtained the second prize of Rome in 1678, before specialising in the portrait and being received at the Academy in 1701. Much in demand at the French court, he also worked for foreign courts, notably for Maximilian-Emmanuel of Bavaria as first painter. Mainly known as a pastellist, Joseph Vivien also produced many portraits in oil. He dominated the genre in the last years of the reign of Louis XIV and during the Regency.

The aesthetic of the portrait is again that of the seventeenth century and its great contemporaries, Largillière and Rigaud, with its three-quarter pose and drapery dramatising the face. However, the pastel gives this portrait a sensitive dimension, with its velvety eyes, sketchy smile and slight frown. The Abbé de Fontenai wrote of Joseph Vivien in his Dictionnaire des artistes, published in 1776: "He was one of the first to paint full-length portraits in pastel, as large as life, whose freshness and truth astonished. This new prodigy was extremely popular; people hardly believed what their eyes confirmed: the vigorous colouring of these beautiful pieces made them doubt whether they were painted in oil or pastel".

The artist's reputation spread beyond France's borders: in 1698, Joseph Vivien travelled to Brussels, where he met his future patron, Maximilien Emmanuel of Bavaria, for the first time, and painted a portrait of him. Later, the artist's contacts with the Bavarian court intensified, and Vivien travelled several times to Bonn and worked for some time in Munich. Along with Louis de Silvestre in Dresden and Antoine Pense in Berlin, Joseph Vivien was one of the French artists who greatly influenced the German-speaking world.

Louis-Abel de Bonafons, abbé de Fontenay, Dictionnaire des Artistes, Paris, 1776.

Neil Jeffares, Dictionary of pastellists before 1800. Online edition. VIVIEN, Joseph