Charles-Antoine Coypel

Charles-Antoine Coypel was from a family of French painters, son of Antoine Coypel, the First Painter to the King of France. A precocious artist, he was made a member of the Académie Royale by the age of 21. He tried his hand at playwriting during the 1720s, but few were performed. Meanwhile, his artistic career was extremely successful. On his father's death in 1722, he inherited the position of painter to Philippe II, Duc d'Orléans, and he later became the favorite painter of Louis XV's queen, Maria Leczinska, receiving a commission from her to design a series of theatrical scenes for tapestries. In 1747 he became director of the Académie Royale and was made First Painter to the King, as his father had been.