Directory of printmakers
Lanier, Nicholas (1588-1666) A member of a musical dynasty, Nicholas Lanier was also a miniaturist and art collector, who in the 1620s was sent by Charles I to Italy to supervise the acquisition of the art collection of the dukes of Mantua. He executed a few etchings after Old Masters in his later years.
Laroon, Marcellus (1648/9 or 1653-1702) Three generations of artists named Marcellus Laroon came from this French family which settled in England after the Restoration. No work is known by the eldest, and his son is usually called ‘Old Laroon’ to differentiate him from his son (1679-1772), whose activity fell mainly in the 18th century. After a period when he worked in York, ‘Old Laroon’ moved to London in the 1670s, his address being 4 Bow Street, Covent Garden. He is best known for his drawings of The Cryes of London, which were engraved by John Savage (active 1683-1700) and published by Pierce Tempest in 1688, though he was also notable for his slightly risqué genre scenes in mezzotint.
Lens, Bernard, II (1659-1725) The Lens family were artists of Dutch origin, and three successive members were named Bernard, namely the father (1659-108), who we learn from George Vertue was an enamel painter (and also wrote religious tracts), his son (1659-1725), who specialised in mezzotints and was appointed drawing master at Christ's Hospital in 1705, and his son (1682-1740), a topographical draughtsman, miniaturist and drawing master who was limner to George I and II. This has led to some confusion between the output of Bernard Lens II and Bernard Lens III, though a large corpus of mezzotints of various sizes, especially of genre subjects, can definitely be attributed to Bernard Lens II.
Lodge, William
(1649-89) Lodge hailed from a family of wealthy cloth merchants from Leeds and was educated
at Jesus College, Cambridge, and Lincoln’s Inn. He took up artistic activities while at
Cambridge and in 1670 travelled to Italy, publishing The Painter’s Voyage
to Italy, illustrated with his own etchings, in 1679. In the 1670s, Lodge belonged to
the circle of virtuosi at York, and he was a close friend of Francis Place. His etchings
include plates illustrating Martin Lister’s scientific papers as well as various
topographical views.
Loggan, David (1634-92) Although his family came from Oxfordshire, Loggan was born in Gdansk and was trained under Wilhelm Hondius and Crispijn de Passe the younger. In the 1650s, he settled in London, specialising in portraits drawn in black lead which he often subsequently engraved. In the 1660s he moved to Oxford where he was appointed ‘public sculptor’ and was responsible for producing Oxonia Illustrata (1675). He returned to London in 1675, producing a companion volume on Cambridge over the next decade and a half. In his later years, his business was affected by the rise of mezzotint, with which he briefly experimented himself, but he is mainly known for his sensitive portrait engravings.
Lombart, Pierre (or Peter) (1613-82) Lombart was a Frenchman who arrived in England during the Interregnum (the first dated print that he produced in this country is an engraved title-page of 1650). He remained there until 1660 or shortly thereafter, when he returned to Paris, remaining there for the rest of his life. In addition to fine portrait prints of Cromwell and others, and a series of portraits of ‘Countesses’ after van Dyck, Lombart produced various illustrations for publications by John Ogilby.
Luttrell, Edward (documented 1680-1737) Evidently from the same Devonshire family as the collector Narcissus Luttrell (1657-1732), Edward Luttrell abandoned an intended legal career for art, writing a treatise on drawing, painting and limning which has never been published, and developing a technique of using pastels on copper plates grounded for mezzotint. A number of examples of his work survive, although he never became leading producer of mezzotints.