The son of the painter Antoine Ranc, Jean Ranc, was trained in Paris by Hyacinthe Rigaud, the principal portraitist to the court of Louis XIV, and himself executed portraits of Louis XIV, Louis XV and Philippe, duc d'Orleans. Ranc travelled to Spain in 1722, becoming first painter to Philip V and remained there as a court portraitist for thirteen years.

A very similarly posed figure of an elderly man, also by Jean Ranc but formerly given to Rigaud, is in the Musée des Beaux-Arts, Nantes