Jacques d'Agar (''Danish: Jacob d'Agar'' 9 March 1640 – 16 November 1715) was a French portrait painter born in

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), ma ...

. He was a pupil of

Jacob Ferdinand Voet Jacob Ferdinand Voet or Jakob Ferdinand Voet ( 163926 September 1689) was a Flemish portrait painter.Jacob Ferdinand Vo ...

. He began his career as an

history painter History painting is a genre in painting defined by its subject matter rather than any artistic style or specific period. History paintings depict a moment in a narrative story, most often (but not exclusively) Greek and Roman mythology and Bible ...

, but he soon abandoned history for portraiture, in which branch of art he became very successful. In 1675 he was admitted into the

Academy An academy (Attic Greek: Ἀκαδήμεια; Koine Greek Ἀκαδημία) is an institution of secondary or tertiary higher learning (and generally also research or honorary membership). The name traces back to Plato's school of philosop ...

, and also became painter in ordinary to the king and his court. Upon the revocation of the

Edict of Nantes The Edict of Nantes () was signed in April 1598 by King Henry IV and granted the Calvinist Protestants of France, also known as Huguenots, substantial rights in the nation, which was in essence completely Catholic. In the edict, Henry aimed pr ...

, Agar, as a

Protestant Protestantism is a branch of Christianity that follows the theological tenets of the Protestant Reformation, a movement that began seeking to reform the Catholic Church from within in the 16th century against what its followers perceived to b ...

, was shut out from the Academy. He accordingly left France in 1682, never to return. He was invited to the court of Denmark, and was greatly patronized by King Christian V. His self-portrait is in the Galleria degli Uffizi in

Florence Florence ( ; it, Firenze ) is a city in Central Italy and the capital city of the Tuscany Regions of Italy, region. It is the most populated city in Tuscany, with 383,083 inhabitants in 2016, and over 1,520,000 in its metropolitan area.Bilan ...

, having been painted for Cosimo III de' Medici in 1693, at the request of King Christian. Walpole tells us that he visited England, where he resided some time, and met with success. He painted the portraits of several members of the British nobility of Queen Anne's reign, including the Duchess of Montagu, the Countesses of Rochfort and Sunderland, Thomas Earl of Strafford, and others. A portrait of Charles II of England, by him, is said to have been formerly in the Gallery at Christiansburg. He died in 1716 in

Copenhagen Copenhagen ( or .; da, København ) is the capital and most populous city of Denmark, with a proper population of around 815.000 in the last quarter of 2022; and some 1.370,000 in the urban area; and the wider Copenhagen metropolitan ar ...

. His son

Charles d'Agar Charles d'Agar (1669–1723) was a French, and , describe d'Agar as a French painter. Alternately, , says that " 'Agar's''œuvre'' was clearly of more consequence to English art than that of his father." portrait painter, the son of Jacques d'Agar ...

also became a portrait painter.

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