Alphonse Legros (1847-1911), The Desperate Young Girl

Etching by Alphonse Legros representing a little girl hiding her face, and probably her grief, behind her hand. This is the artist's last known work. Alphonse Legros (1847-1911) is a draftsman, painter, sculptor and engraver who was trained at the Beaux Arts in Dijon and Paris. Close friend of Degas, Rodin and Fantin Latour. It was on the advice of the painter Whistler that he moved to London in 1863 where he distinguished himself as a teacher at University College London. He then frequented the great names of the Pre-Raphaelite movement, in particular Rossetti and Burne-Jones, and also produced portraits of Darwin, Rodin, Victor Hugo... An extraordinary draftsman, it was he who introduced Rodin to the technique of the dry point in 1881. His works reveal an imaginary at the same time powerful and dark, the sick, the destitute and the dying always hold a good place there. His series "The Triumph of Death" is the perfect illustration of this. This etching bears the artist's studio stamp, it is in very good condition. "La Jeune Désespérée" is the last known work of Legros. A state of this plate is kept at the National Gallery of Art in Washington.