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Agar, Jacques d’
(b Paris, 1640; d Copenhagen, 16 Nov 1715). French painter, also active in Denmark and England. He was probably a pupil of Jacob Ferdinand Voet (1639–?1700) and practised chiefly as a portrait painter. Having failed with his first submission to the Académie Royale in 1672, he was received (reçu) as a member in 1675 on submission of portraits of the sculptors François Girardon (untraced) and Michel Anguier (Versailles, Château). As a Protestant, he fled to London (where he became a denizen in October 1681) and as a result was expelled from the Académie Royale in 1682. He may also have travelled to the Netherlands but by 1685 had settled in Copenhagen, where he became chief court painter to Christian V (reg 1670–99) and then to Frederick IV (reg 1699–1730). Most of his portraits for the Danish court were destroyed in 1794, in the fire at Christianborg Castle. In 1699 he provided painted decorations for the funeral of Christian V, and between 1701 and 1706 he contributed several history paintings (destr.) to the decoration of Frederiksborg Castle. Among his authenticated surviving works are the portraits of Jean-Baptiste Tavernier (Copenhagen, Stat. Mus. Kst), Christian V (Copenhagen, Rosenborg Slot) and a Self-portrait (1693; Florence, Uffizi). His son Charles d’Agar (1669–1723) accompanied him to both London and Copenhagen; he settled in London in 1691, becoming a fashionable portrait painter. His few certain works, such as the full-length portrait of Lord George Douglas as a Child (1709; Duke of Buccleuch, priv. col.), are in the style of Michael Dahl. The works of father and son are often confused.
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