Portrait of Antoine Coysevox

With one hand resting on a marble bust and the other clutching a chisel, Antoine Coysevox reveals his profession: he was a royal sculptor, employed at the court of Louis XIV. But he also happened to be the director of the French Academy from 1702 to 1705. The French Academy of Painting and Sculpture was a learned society that set the standards for, monitored, and critiqued visual art. François Jouvenet painted this portrait a year before Coysevox became director and, in fact, presented this picture and another as his diploma paintings for acceptance into the same institution. Jouvenet eventually established himself as a portraitist of considerable reputation.