Alphonse Legros

Alphonse Legros ( born May 8, 1837 in Dijon, † December 7, 1911 in Watford, Hertfordshire ) was a British painter and etcher of realism and medalist with French roots.

Life and work

Legos attended the Ecole des Beaux -Arts in Dijon and was an apprentice with master Nicolardo, a portrait - painter. Convinced of its 1851 Can took the painter Jean Baptiste Legros Beuchot from Lyon in his studio at which he assisted in the decoration of the chapel of Cardinal Bonald. After six months Legros went to Paris and attended the Ecole Petite ( the future École nationale supérieure des arts Décoratifs ), where he, Auguste Rodin and Henri Fantin -Latour first met Jules Dalou. Evening classes at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts de Paris, he became friends with James McNeill Whistler.

Until 1855 Legros also studied at the École des Beaux -Arts and was also a pupil of Horace Lecoq de Boisboudran next. Funded and supported by his teachers, Legros 1857 could debut at an exhibition of the Parisian salons with a portrait of his father. During this period Legros began to deal intensively with the etching. He also made the acquaintance of Mr Gustave Courbet and counted soon for its circle of artists.

In the spring of 1862 Legros undertook a nearly year-long study trip to Spain. From this he brought a lot of sketches and studies, which later formed the basis of numerous images.

In winter 1862/63 Legros returned to France. He entered the founded in 1862, " Société des Aquafortistes " one. This artist association dedicated to promoting the art of etching had set a goal. They released their own catalog. Already in the spring of the following year he went at the invitation of Whistler to the UK and settled in London, and later in Watford down. In 1864 he married Miss Frances Hodgson Rosetta. He was a teacher of etchings at the South Kensington School of Art Edward Poynter made ​​after his resignation that Legros in 1876 professor at the Slade School of Fine Art was.

In 1881 he received the British citizenship and taught for 17 years at University College.

In 1880 he founded, together with other artists, the Society of Painter - Etchers and Engravers, to establish the etching ( etching) and etching ( Engraving ) as a recognized art forms. Although he was very influenced by the English artists Charles Holroyd, Charles Shannon and Charles strand and the British " art scene " closely watched, he nevertheless remained all his life in England an outsider, but was the most influential teacher of William Rothenstein.

Alphonse Legros died on 7 December 1911 at the age of 74 in Watford, Hertfordshire.

Works (selection)

Oil paintings

  • The Communion
  • Angelus (1859 )
  • The Stoning of St. Stephen (gallery in Avranches )
  • Monks In Prayer
  • The declaration of honor ( Musée du Luxembourg, Paris)
  • The Pilgrimage ( Gallery in Liverpool)
  • A Spanish Monastery
  • The consecration of the Sea ( 1873)
  • The Baptism
  • The Tinkers
  • The girls' school

Etchings

  • The burnt offering ( Victimes de l' incendie )
  • The monk with the torch
  • The death of St. Francis
  • Thomas Carlyle ( Portrait )
  • The Holzhauer
  • The plague

Publication

  • Lucien Alphonse Legros and John Cameron Grant: Typographical Printing- Surfaces: The Technology and Mechanism of Their Production. Publisher: Longman, Greene & Co., London 1916
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