Preening Man

Lequeu’s careful studies of facial expressions also function as self-portraits, revealing the artist at different stages of life and in a range of moods. As with the character heads sculpted by Franz Xaver Messerschmidt (1736–1783) first exhibited in Vienna in 1793, Lequeu’s portraits examine how facial expressions convey not only fleeting emotions but also ingrained elements of a subject’s personality. Here, the bare- chested artist, his head wrapped in a flannel, puckers his lips and raises his brows in a parody of vanity.