This miniature was painted when the Duke was 25 years old, seven years after his marriage to the daughter of Louis XIV, Françoise-Marie, whose miniature is also in the Royal Collection (RCIN 420359). He was the second son of Louis XIII and Regent of France during the minority of Louis XV. The head was used later by Jean-Baptiste Santerre for his full-length portrait (Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery).

Jacques Antoine Arlaud (1668-1746) was born in Geneva. He and his brother, Benjamin, came from a family of clockmakers. He gave up a career in classical studies to become a miniaturist, settling in Paris in 1688 where he became miniature painter to the Duke of Orléans. He also painted religious and mythological subjects in oils and he worked among the exiled Stuarts, including Prince James Francis Edward Stuart, (the 'Old Pretender'), at St Germain from 1703-10. In 1721, he visited London (with an introduction to the Princess of Wales) and finally returned to Geneva in 1729.

Signed and dated on the back in ink: Jacobus / Antonius / Arlaud / Genevensis / pingebat ad / vivum Parisiis / mense Januario / Anno Salutis 1699.