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In France, during the decades of 1660-80 few painters had devoted themselves exclusively to portraiture, which was considered of secondary importance. The personages of the time liked if possible to be shown in action, for instance as victorious general, or at least surrounded by appropriate and allegorical embellishments. But after about 1685 several important artists appear who specialized in portraiture and who created a new fashion in this field. The essential novelty of their style is the introduction of the technique and patterns of the Flemish school, particularly of van Dyck.
The oldest of these painters was François de Troy who was soon outshone by two more brilliant painters of the same generation, Nicolas de Largillière and Hyacinthe Rigaud. Some of de Troy's portraits such as that of the lute-player Charles Mouton, suggest an awareness of Italian seventeenth-century portraiture, but his more typical portraits of women show him as an imitator of the free movement of the Flemish tradition.
Charles Mouton (c. 1626-c. 1699) was a French lutenist and composer. Mouton and his contemporary Jacques Gallot (c. 1625-c. 1695) are two of the last noteworthy French composers for the lute.
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