Rigaud was born in Turin and studied there with the history painter Claudio Beaumont. After traveling variously in Italy he completed his training in Rome where he met James Barry (1741-1806), who may have been responsible for suggesting he move to London in 1771. Not only did he quickly find success as a portraitist but also as an architectural painter receiving many commissions for neo-classical ceilings and other decorative schemes. In 1782 he completed his famous triple portrait of fellow Academicians Sir William Chambers, Joseph Wilton and Sir Joshua Reynolds now at the National Portrait Gallery, London. He exhibited regularly at the Royal Academy where he was elected a full member in 1784.

The sitter Anthony Francis Haldimand was a successful London merchant known personally by Rigaud. Haldimand and the artist had grown up together in the same town in Switzerland, their mercantile fathers also being friends. Haldimand had shown strong artistic leanings but yielded to his father’s wish of pursuing business. Both had been drawn to London to find their fortune and when Rigaud arrived his old friend was already well established and in a good situation to give the struggling artist a helping hand. Eventually Haldimand founded the banking house of Morris Prevost & Co. This, together with shrewd personal investments and a vast inheritance from his uncle, the Governor of Quebec Sir Frederick Haldimand, meant he was able to lead a comfortable life in late Georgian society.

Seated at his desk with many papers Haldimand is caught whilst checking through some recently delivered letters, presented both at once industrious and inquisitive. The use of chiaroscuro displays the strong influence of his time in Italy, whilst the striking yet strangely intimate pose betrays the friendship and regards both artist and sitter had for each other. Another, now lost, portrait of Haldimand is recorded with the famous portraitist Sir Thomas Lawrence completing another circa 1800, which is with the National Trust at Montacute House.