DOI Heft:
Nr. 118 (January 1903)
DOI Artikel:Sparrow, Walter Shaw: The etched works of Alphonse Legros
DOI Seite / Zitierlink: https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.19877#0276
Alphonse Legros
but in his critical attitude to his own art he is papers day by day are filled with a wreakage of
far too drastic, much too ruthless; here judgment tremendous tragedies—tragedies that bear witness
and execution go too often hand-in-hand, as in the to the eternal warfare that man must always carry
Vehmic tribunals. For my part, I should like on against hunger and thirst, against poverty and
to be able to publish an illustrated catalogue of sickness, against the winds and the sea, the havoc
all those etchings of his which mark either a period of fires, the miscarriages of legal justice, the devour-
in his life, or a fortunate day of inspiration; and I ing slum-life of towns and cities, the canker 01
believe that their number would not fall far short hereditary disease, the competitions of trade, and
of two hundred and fifty. the preying of strong, unscrupulous minds upon
When treating of a versatile and prolific artist, it the weak and upon the poor. In addition to this,
is always a good thing to find out whether his all trades and all professions, all games too, every
achievements have in them some dominant note sport and every pleasure, exact from us, throughout
of feeling, some connecting-link of purpose and of the year in all countries, their battle-toll of victims,
emotion, by which they are brought en masse into of killed or of maimed and wounded. Peace, you
the field of criticism : and this is why one feels may be sure, is the hallucination of minds that do
called upon to say that Mr. Legros' etchings ought not think intelligently. Hence, no doubt, the
never to be looked upon as separate and detached perennial war of life should be recognised for what
pieces, united only by their producer's individuality, it is, namely, as an immense series of ever-recurring
If you seek with care, with care accompanied by conquests and defeats in every domain of human
good judgment, you will find unmistakably a uni- effort and of human suffering and heroism ; and as
fying purpose common to a large majority of them ; such it is recognised by Mr, Legros in dozens ot
and you will find it in Mr. Legros' virile recognition his more noteworthy etchings.
of the fact that man's life upon earth is not in any Note also, as a thing eminently characteristic of
sense a life of peace, but a life of unceasing con- the man, that in his attitude to his tremendous
flict, of perennial war. Most of us, obedient to a subject he is always manly, always strong and
silly custom, shut our minds upon this fact, and courageous; and thus there is no whimpering, no
think we are virtuous and wise when we chatter cheap sentimentalism, in his etched dramas. The
sentimentally about Peace. Meantime the news- British public may find fault with him on this
"THE PLAIN," No. 362, First State FROM THE DRY POINT BY A. LEGROS
264
but in his critical attitude to his own art he is papers day by day are filled with a wreakage of
far too drastic, much too ruthless; here judgment tremendous tragedies—tragedies that bear witness
and execution go too often hand-in-hand, as in the to the eternal warfare that man must always carry
Vehmic tribunals. For my part, I should like on against hunger and thirst, against poverty and
to be able to publish an illustrated catalogue of sickness, against the winds and the sea, the havoc
all those etchings of his which mark either a period of fires, the miscarriages of legal justice, the devour-
in his life, or a fortunate day of inspiration; and I ing slum-life of towns and cities, the canker 01
believe that their number would not fall far short hereditary disease, the competitions of trade, and
of two hundred and fifty. the preying of strong, unscrupulous minds upon
When treating of a versatile and prolific artist, it the weak and upon the poor. In addition to this,
is always a good thing to find out whether his all trades and all professions, all games too, every
achievements have in them some dominant note sport and every pleasure, exact from us, throughout
of feeling, some connecting-link of purpose and of the year in all countries, their battle-toll of victims,
emotion, by which they are brought en masse into of killed or of maimed and wounded. Peace, you
the field of criticism : and this is why one feels may be sure, is the hallucination of minds that do
called upon to say that Mr. Legros' etchings ought not think intelligently. Hence, no doubt, the
never to be looked upon as separate and detached perennial war of life should be recognised for what
pieces, united only by their producer's individuality, it is, namely, as an immense series of ever-recurring
If you seek with care, with care accompanied by conquests and defeats in every domain of human
good judgment, you will find unmistakably a uni- effort and of human suffering and heroism ; and as
fying purpose common to a large majority of them ; such it is recognised by Mr, Legros in dozens ot
and you will find it in Mr. Legros' virile recognition his more noteworthy etchings.
of the fact that man's life upon earth is not in any Note also, as a thing eminently characteristic of
sense a life of peace, but a life of unceasing con- the man, that in his attitude to his tremendous
flict, of perennial war. Most of us, obedient to a subject he is always manly, always strong and
silly custom, shut our minds upon this fact, and courageous; and thus there is no whimpering, no
think we are virtuous and wise when we chatter cheap sentimentalism, in his etched dramas. The
sentimentally about Peace. Meantime the news- British public may find fault with him on this
"THE PLAIN," No. 362, First State FROM THE DRY POINT BY A. LEGROS
264