Jean Ranc

Antoine had a personal collection of paintings by the European masters, and received many young artists into his studio, including Hyacinthe Rigaud from 1671.

Ranc registered with the Académie on 30 December 1700, being received into it on 28 July 1703 as a portraitist for his portraits of Nicolas van Plattenberg, known as "Platte-Montagne" (1631–1706) and that of François Verdier (1651–1730).

Hoping to have a high-flying career in a country where there was no French portraitist to equal or surpass him, Ranc left for Madrid, arriving in 1724 with his five children: Antoine Jean-Baptiste,[2] Hyacinthe,[3] Marguerite Elisabeth,[4] Claude[5] and Hyacinthe-Joseph.

Thanks to his fashion of allying the "melting touch of Rigaud with the Castilian vehemence of Vélasquez",[citation needed] he established a new iconography for the Spanish Bourbons.

Suffering from criticism by Spaniards "who sought to do only harm to a foreigner",[citation needed] Ranc's stay in Spain was not at all restful.

In vain he demanded the cross of the Order of Saint Michael or the post of Maestro de Obras Reales (Master of Royal Works), left vacant by the death of Andrea Procaccini (1671–1734).

In Spain he had a long and serious dispute with his colleague Michel Ange Houasse due to their artistic jealousy and desire to excel at court.

For example, when sent to auction at the Hôtel Drouot in 1993, his portraits of Joseph Bonnier de la Mosson and his wife were wrongly attributed to Rigaud and said to represent the President of La Mésangère and his wife; they came back on the Venetian art market attributed to Largillierre, who had painted the latter couple in three-quarters bust.