François Theodore Rochard was a younger brother of the portrait miniaturist Simon Jacques Rochard. After studying art in France, his brother made him come to London in about 1820. From that date until 1855 the artist exhibited at the Royal Academy, Society of British Artists and New Watercolor Society, of which he became a member in 1835. He painted miniatures, numerous portraits and genre subjects in watercolor and more rarely in oils. François Rochard quickly had success in London and formed for himself an important clientele in the English aristocracy, and even painted some crowned heads.