( fl c. 1600–50). French draughtsman. He may have come from a family that had close connections with Verneuil; according to Rousseau, he may have been the Nicolas Lagneau born there in 1594. This Lagneau was not a professional artist. However, the large number of physiognomic drawings attributed to Nicolas Lagneau, most of which are in the Musée du Louvre or the Bibliothèque Nationale in Paris, argue against the hypothesis that he was an amateur, and this identification seems dubious. Moreover, Lagneau was obviously the central figure of a group of ‘expressionistic’ portrait draughtsmen. He nevertheless appears to have produced imaginary heads, having thus been independent of sitters. In so far as he may have worked from models, what seems to have interested him most were grotesque physiognomies. A series of drawings (Paris, Bib. N.), formerly in the collection of Michel de Marolles, and dated by Pariset to 1630–45, reveals Lagneau principally as a caricaturist. In each case, the head takes up most of the half-length compositions, while the upper body, arms and hands appear disproportionately small, and often seemingly misdrawn. The expressivity of the facial features is emphasized and every detail of wrinkles, lines and deformations reproduced. The drawings are executed in black and red chalk, occasionally reinforced with blue or yellow gouache. Lagneau’s expressionistic graphic style, his fascination with the grotesque and his extreme realism rank him among those French artists who, like the Le Nain brothers or Claude Vignon, absorbed influences from early Rembrandt and the Leiden ‘Fine’ painters at the beginning of the 17th century. Lagneau’s drawings were widely copied or imitated by contemporaries, and it is into this category that an album of drawings at Schloss Wilhelmshöhe, Kassel, falls.

• Lagneau, Nicolas (fl c. 1600-10)
  • Marolles, Michel de
  • Robien, Christophe-Paul Gautron