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The Mignard shows originality in portraiture. This art had almost ceased to exist in its own right, owing to the importance which the Academy attached to history painting. Mignard had the skill to give life to this ailing tradition, and his portraits in this vein, such as the present painting, are vastly superior to similar productions by his rivals, such as Claude Lefebvre, who used a more or less Flemish formula deriving ultimately from van Dyck.
Edouard Colbert, Marquis de Villacerf (1628-1699) was a high ranking official in the government of Louis XIV. The nephew of the King's famous Finance Minister, Jean-Baptiste Colbert, he was appointed Superintendent of Buildings, Arts and Manufactures in 1691. This post charged him - among others - the overseeing of the French Royal academies of painting, sculpture, and architecture.
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