Galerie Paul Prouté

Alphonse Legros was one of the leading exponents of Realist painting in France (in his case, at times mystical, or at least ‘inspired’, as the art historian Bruno Foucart put it). Born in Dijon in 1837, he moved to Paris at a young age, where he found nothing but abject poverty; Legros went on to achieve success in England (having been naturalised in 1863, he died there in 1911). A man of many talents – a painter, medallist and even a sculptor – Legros was also a renowned etcher. Like his paintings, his some seven hundred prints consist mainly of head studies and portraits, landscapes and, above all, religious genre scenes (church history or contemporary expressions of faith). Close in England to Francis Seymour Haden and Whistler, and in France to Bracquemond and Cadart, Legros was an active advocate of the painter’s etching (he himself often retouched his prints) and one of the founding members of the Société des aquafortistes.