NICOLAS LAGNEAU (CIRCA 1590-1660)
LAGNEAU (CIRCA 1590-1660)

Portrait of an elderly man, bust-length, looking to the right

Details
LAGNEAU (CIRCA 1590-1660)
Portrait of an elderly man, bust-length, looking to the right
black and red chalk, gray wash, watermark grapes within double circle, inscribed ‘Colonbier’ (Heawood 2427: France, after 1654)
15 x 10 5/8 in. (38 x 27 cm)
Provenance
Anonymous sale; Tajan, Paris, 6 July 2002, lot 83.
with Ilaria Quadrani, New York (Master Drawings, 2002, no. 6, ill.).

Brought to you by

Giada Damen, Ph.D.
Giada Damen, Ph.D. AVP, Specialist, Head of Sale

Lot Essay

In keeping with the French 16th Century drawing portrait tradition of trois crayons, Lagneau made use of black and red pastel to outline the sitter’s features, while he used stumping for a more nebulous backdrop (for a discussion of the technique see M. Préaud, Lagneau, exhib cat. Chantilly, Musée Condé, 2005, p. 17 and p. 32). In the 19th Century important collectors of drawings played a great part in rediscovering Lagneau’s draftsmanship, among them were the Marquis de Chennevières (1820-1899), the Duc d’Aumale (1822-1897) and Eugène Rodrigues (1853-1928), all of whom gathered important groups of the artist’s works.

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