Alphonse Legros (May 8,1837 — December 8, 1911), painter, etcher and sculptor was born in Dijon. His father was an accountant, and came from the neighbouring village of Véronnes. Young Legros frequently visited the farms of his relatives, and the peasants and landscapes of that part of France are the subjects of many of his pictures and etchings. He was sent to the art school at Dijon with a view to qualifying for a trade, and was apprenticed to Maître Nicolardo, house decorator and painter of images. In 1851 Legros left for Paris to take another situation; but passing through Lyon he worked for six months as journeyman wall-painter under the decorator Beuchot, who was painting the chapel of Cardinal Bonald in the cathedral.
In Paris he studied with Cambon, scene-painter and decorator of theatres, an experience which developed a breadth of touch such as Stallfield and Cox picked up in similar circumstances. At this time he attended the drawing-school of Lecoq de Boisbaudran (the “Petite école”) where he found himself in sympathy with Jules Dalou and Auguste Rodin. In 1855 Legros attended the evening classes of the École des Beaux Arts, and perhaps gained there his love of drawing from the antique, some of the results of which may be seen in the Print Room of the British Museum.

Experiments in all varieties of art work were practiced; whenever the professor saw a fine example in the museum, or when a process interested him in a workshop, he never rested until he had mastered the technique and his students were trying their apprentice hands at it. As he had casually picked up the art of etching by watching a comrade in Paris working at a commercial engraving, so he began the making of medals after a walk in the British Museum, studying the masterpieces of Pisanello, and a visit to the Cabinet des Médailles in Paris. Legros, considered the traditional journey to Italy a very important part of artistic training, and in order that his students should have the benefit of such study he devoted a part of his salary to augment the income available for a travelling studentship. His later works, after he resigned his professorship in 1892, were more in the free and ardent manner of his early days—imaginative landscapes, castles inSpain, and farms in Burgundy, etchings like the series of “The Triumph of Death,” and the sculptured fountains for the gardens of the duke of Portland at Welbeck.


Here is a great work: Alphonse Legros “Edward J. Poynter” Etching, measuring 6.25 by 10 inches (platemark); plate signed on laid paper. This is in good condition with little discoloration out side of the etched work and a slight crease in the paper out side of the etched work (of little notice).

Art (paintings, prints, frames)