Morning on the river (Matin sur la rivière).

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 spent his later life 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. On 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.

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Legros captures the quiet serenity of the early morning in this work. A man clambers from a punt onto the riverbank while another man across the river sits by the water’s edge. Trees line the river in small groupings. A building atop a hill is present in the distance.

In line and style the work is similar to Rembrandt’s etched landscapes such as <em>Landscape with a cow drinking,</em> (c.1650) (Te Papa 1869-0001-427). In both landscapes, the objects are made up of line and intricate crosshatching (this is particularly evident in the boat and river’s edge in this work). It is no surprise that Legros’ etching style takes influence from Rembrandt; Legros often looked to the old master printers as ingrained by his time spent copying Louvre works while at the École.

Sources:

Anna Gruetzner Robins, Elizabeth Jacklin, Caroline Corbeau-Parsons (eds), ‘Alphonse Legros: Migrant and Cultural Ambassador’, in <em>Impressionists in London: French Artists in Exile 1870–1904 </em>(London: Tate Publishing, 2017), 115–143, p. 134

Maurice Harold Grant, A Dictionary of British Etchers (London: Rockliff, 1953), pp. 127–128

Wikipedia: 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   January 2018