Legros, Alphonse (1837-1911)
Répétition du service (Rehearsing the Service)
c.1870
Oil on canvas, 91.4 × 116.8 cm
Tate Britain, London
The French realist painter Legros moved to London in 1863, and from then exhibited both at the Royal Academy and the Paris Salon. In the late 1860s, he came to admire Ingres and the Italian old masters, and emphasised outline and local colour in his paintings. He favoured church subjects, treating them as motifs of daily life. The priest at the right was painted from the famous Italian model Alessandro di Marco, who also posed for Burne-Jones, Leighton and others. The head of a choirboy between the two men was painted out by the artist, but now shows through. (Tate)