International studio (20.1903)

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studies, heads and iandscapes—of which, at the
outset, he produced many, as his chief means of
subsistence—or the 7;wn?<2M.x executed as demon-
strations in the course of the silent conferences for
which he was in such great demand in all parts of
England, it would be impossible to collect more
than forty of his subjects, portraits or compositions,
from the galleries of France and England and from
private collections in London.
It may now be well to sketch in a few lines the
biography of Legros. I shall not labour the subject,
for it is sufficiently well known nowadays, and I have
had the good fortune to contribute thereto myself.
Let me then recall a few of the salient facts.
Alphonse Legros was born at Dijon, on the 8th
of May, 1837. His family all belonged to a small
neighbouring village, and came of an old Burgun-
dian stock. His father was an accountant. The
home was full of children, and life there was some-
what restricted. Alphonse, while still quite young,
was sent to the School of Fine Arts in the town, in
order that he might learn drawing, with the idea of
qualifying him for some trade, and, in fact, at the
age of thirteen he was placed with a house painter,
who proudly styled himself " Maitre Nicolardo,
peintre en batiments et colorieur d'images." In
1851 the lad left for Paris, stopping on the way

at Lyons, where he was employed on the decora-
tion of a chapel in the Cathedral. There he
stayed six months, and, reaching Paris at last, was
engaged by Cambon, the well-known theatrical
decorator. He also attended the drawing classes
at a school which exists to this day under another
name—" L'Ecole des Arts Decoratifs "—but was
then known simply as " La Petite Acole." His
master here was the Lecoq de Boisbaudran to
whom I have already alluded. He taught his pupil
a very fine and practical method of studying forms
by what he called " le dessin de memoire "—a
method which formed quite an appreciable number
of highly meritorious artists. I need do no more
than name Bonvin, Fantin-Latour, Dalou and
Rodin, Cazin, Lhermitte and Guillaume Regamey,
all well known in England. Furthermore, like all
his comrades, Legros, by the advice of the master,
worked much at the Louvre.
His first attempt at painting was made only after
a considerable period of study, for it was one of
" Pere Lecoq's " principles that no painting should
be done until one could draw satisfactorily, and,
above all, that one should delay exhibiting as long
as possible. It dates from 1837, in which year
Legros sent two portraits to the Salon; one was
refused, the other, accepted, was the portrait of his


"EVENING" FROM THE DRAWING IN WASH AND LINE BY ALPHONSE LEGROS

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