Jean-Baptiste Vanloo came from a famous Dutch family of artists who had worked in France since the mid-1600s. In 1720–1742, he worked in Paris for, among others, King Louis XV. Here, the artist has captured a big personality, a rubicund gentleman, who was probably a member of the royal orchestra at Versailles. The rhetorical characteristics of the portrait contributed to the previously held belief that the model was an actor.