Bracquemond, Félix (1833-1914)
Portrait d’Alphonse Legros (Portrait of Alphonse Legros)
1875
Etching, 16.7 × 11.7 cm
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
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”). (MET)
See also:
• Legros, Alphonse (1837-1911)