Premier peintre du Roi

The Premier peintre du Roi (French pronunciation: [pʁəmje pɛ̃tʁ dy ʁwa]; First painter to the King) was a court painter position within the administration of the Bâtiments du Roi of the Département de la Maison du Roi in France under the Ancien Régime.

Its holder occupied a similar position to that of Premier architecte du Roi (albeit a far less prestigious one).

Unlike other countries, the Premier peintre was often, even usually, not a specialist portrait-painter, but was always a native Frenchman.

In contrast, his successor Charles Le Brun devoted most of his time to his work for Louis XIV, decorating his palaces and designing for and supervising the royal factories of the Savonnerie manufactory for carpets and the Gobelins Manufactory for tapestries and furniture.

Le Brun had a bitter, life-long rivalry with the portraitist Pierre Mignard, who finally succeeded him at the age of 78, but only held the post for the five years before he died.