item details
Overview
Alphonse Legros (1837–1911) was an Anglo-French etcher, lithographer, painter and medallist. An accomplished creator of macabre allegories and realist scenes of the French countryside, he made a massive impact on the British Etching Revival.
Born in Dijon, a move to Paris by his family in 1851 saw the fourteen-year-old Legros working as a scene-painter of opera sets. During this time Legros also received further training at the École Impériale de Dessin, Paris, under Horace Lecoq de Boisbaudran (1802–1897), whose method of teaching required students to copy Louvre works through mental recollection alone – emphasising the importance of a strong visual memory. Although Legros would spend much of his life living in Britain, his subject matter stayed distinctly French. His landscapes were enriched by memories of time spent during his childhood.
Legros moved to London in 1863, taught as Master of etching at the South Kensington School of Art in 1875 and was made Slade Professor at University College London in 1876. Upon his retirement in 1893, Legros appeared jaded about his time spent teaching, allegedly saying ‘vingt ans perdus’ – ‘twenty years lost’. Despite this disillusionment, during this time Legros shaped the future of the British Etching Revival through his notable students, such as William Strang and Charles Holroyd. Students and critics both noted his insistence on the quality of line which laid the foundation for the ‘Slade tradition’ of fine draughtsmanship.
Legros’ works exhibit less economy of line than the younger generation of etching revivalists; as a result, his scenes of allegory and peasant life in the French landscape are characterised by bold outlines and heavy crosshatching. He was a terrific technician, evident in his use of etching and drypoint alike.
***
This etching is a head-and-shoulders portrait of the artist and museum director, Sir Charles Holroyd (1861-1917), who was also Legros’s student. Legros has used an unusual sketchy technique to capture his likeness. This has the effect of breaking up the shadow in the portrait, giving the print an interesting, textured look.
Originally from Leeds, Holroyd was educated at the Yorkshire College of Science studying mining engineering before changing courses in 1880 and enrolling at the Slade School of Art, University College, London. It was there that he first met Legros, who was his instructor for four years. Holroyd became an instructor himself at the school, teaching there from 1885 to 1889. He was likely one of the capable students or ‘massiers’ trusted with interpreting and explaining "whatever meaning could not be conveyed by expletive or gesture" to the class, though he lived in London for decades, never learnt to speak English.
Holroyd became the first keeper of the National Gallery of British Art at Millbank (now Tate Britain) in 1897. He then became director of the National Gallery (1906-16). It can be inferred that the two artists had a close and friendly relationship, which comes across in this work. Legros captures a sense of creative pensiveness. In other portraits of the time, such as William Strang’s 1907 portrait (Te Papa 1973-0029-3), Holroyd can come across as a rather severe personality, so it is a testament to the friendship between the two men that Legros has been able to give the portrait such warmth. Holroyd reciprocated; in the collections of the Tate is his sketch of Alphonse Legros that depicts him as an old man of keen intelligence.
Sources:
Maurice Harold Grant, ‘A Dictionary of British Etchers’, (London: Rockliff, 1953), pp. 127–128
https://doi.org/10.1093/ref:odnb/33961 (Oxford Dictionary of Biography – Sir Charles Holroyd) https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/holroyd-sketch-of-alphonse-legros-n03398Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alphonse_Legros
Timothy Wilcox, ‘Legros, Alphonse (1837–1911)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, (2004): https://doi.org/10.1093/ref:odnb/34480
Dr Mark Stocker Curator, Historical International Art July 2018