Like many composers of the Baroque era, Robert de Visée was better known as a performer than as a

composer. While he played a variety of instruments that included the theorbo, lute, and viola da gamba,
it was the guitar with which he is most closely identified and on which he appears to have exhibited his
greatest talent. A musician in the French Court of Louis XIV, Visée composed mostly for the guitar,
theorbo, and lute, and is arguably the most important French composer of Baroque guitar music.

Robert de Visée was born in France around 1655. Little is known about his early years, but it is likely he
came from a well-to-do family who provided him excellent instruction in music. At around the age of 25
he was taken on as a Court musician by the King. In 1682 Visée's first book of guitar works was published
in Paris; the second followed in 1686. Together the two volumes contained 12 suites, each of them
consisting of sequences of dances popular in Baroque suites of the day, such as courante, allemande,
minuet, and bourrée.

By the time that 1686 volume appeared Visée had become one of the King's favorite musicians,
performing regularly for the monarch in the private royal chambers. Visée would also become
recognized for his musicianship in Versailles around this time. While he held no official Court post until
1709, the year he was appointed royal chamber singer, Visée appeared regularly in Court concerts from
1694 to 1705. In them he played with the most important French musicians of the day, including
harpsichordist Jean-Baptiste Buterne and viola da gamba player Antoine Forqueray. Visée also began
instructing the king on guitar in 1695, but would only be recognized for this duty by royal appointment
in 1719. He officially held the post of King's Teacher for only two years, ceding it in 1721 to his son
Francois, who was also a talented musician.

A book of Visée's works for theorbo and lute was published in Paris in 1716, and another volume of his
compositions appeared there in 1732. Various guitar pieces were published in other parts of Europe in
anthologies in the early 1730s. Visée appears to have remained active up to the time of his death, which
occurred sometime in 1732-1733.