Lot Essay
There are a number of albums of portraits and expressive heads attributed to Lagneau at Cassel, Stockholm, Cremona and London. The most important one is at the Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris and is called the album de Marolles, from its first owner in the 17th Century. The attribution of the whole group is based on the inscription 'Lagneau' on one of the sheets in the Paris album. Little is known of the artist except that he worked in Paris, and was known to have drawn portraits between 1640 and 1650. The identity of the artist has been disputed; Nicolas Lagneau de Verneuil and David Lagneau, the King's doctor, and various other anonymous artists have been proposed, but none of these has found general favor.
The uneven quality of the drawings has been explained in various ways: either that a single artist had three different stylistic periods; or that he had an active workshop; or that there were at least three different draftsmen. In his article on the artist, Schenck zu Schweinsberg divided the drawings into six categories of similar styles: three types of portraits (A, B and C), studies of facial traits (D), grotesque figures (E) and preparatory studies for paintings (F), E. Schenk zu Schweinsberg, Un Album de Lagneau provenant de Thouars, Gazette des Beaux-Arts, 1983, pp. 189-200. The present drawing is close to those of group B
The uneven quality of the drawings has been explained in various ways: either that a single artist had three different stylistic periods; or that he had an active workshop; or that there were at least three different draftsmen. In his article on the artist, Schenck zu Schweinsberg divided the drawings into six categories of similar styles: three types of portraits (A, B and C), studies of facial traits (D), grotesque figures (E) and preparatory studies for paintings (F), E. Schenk zu Schweinsberg, Un Album de Lagneau provenant de Thouars, Gazette des Beaux-Arts, 1983, pp. 189-200. The present drawing is close to those of group B