Index of the artists
BRACQUEMOND Félix
FICHE 12931
(Paris 1833 - 1914 Sèvres)
Portrait of Alphonse Legros
Etching
1875
Impression on laid paper, from the album Cadart.
Ever the restless printmaker, fourteen years after producing a portrait of his friend Alphonse Legros, Bracquemond modified the copper plate to create this second state. By significantly reducing the plate, he minimized all external details and drew attention to Legros’s face, and also, to his own mastery of etching’s various lines and myriad tonal effects. At this time Legros, a French artist who had moved to England in 1863, was teaching etching in London’s prestigious South Kensington School of Art before being appointed Slade Professor at University College London the following year. Fittingly, this print, with Legros as the subject and Bracquemond’s etching technique on display, was published as a celebratory marker of professional accomplishment in Alfred Cadart’s album "L’Eau-forte en 1875" ("Etching in 1875").
Plate: 167 x 117 mm.
Sheet: 517 x 355 mm.
Reference: a proof is preserved in the MET.
Condition: generally good.
