DOI issue:
Nr. 352 (July 1922)
DOI article:Alphonse Legros: the Bliss collection at the Grosvenor Galleries
DOI Page / Citation link:https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.21396#0036
ALPHONSE LEGROS: THE BLISS COLLECTION
study in oil on cardboard ; both appear colour, pen, wash and oil, and in one case,
to have been painted between 1855 and pen and oil with etching. 0 0 0
1858, when Legros was a youth, and The crowning glory of the collection,
belong to a series of designs illustrating however, is the incomparable series of
the life of the Trappist Monks, upon etchings, dry-points and lithographs which
which he was engaged prior to his migra- Mr. Bliss has with indefatigable zeal
tion to England. Les Moines Bucherons gathered together from many sources—
also belongs to this series. The picture not absolutely complete, indeed, but com-
L'Angelus, dated 1859, representing a prising many impressions of extreme
group of country folk — women and rarity. As an etcher Legros was ex-
children—inside a church, was praised traordinarily prolific, his plates numbering
by Baudelaire and bought by Seymour several hundred, but as Mr. Campbell
Haden (who also bought Le Manege), Dodgson has observed, it is not the
shortly before Whistler, finding Legros quantity but the quality of his production
in " so deplorable a condition that it that assures him an eminent place among
needed God or some lesser person to pull nineteenth century masters. 0 0
him out of it," brought him to London, In briefly recording this unique display
where he worked for a time in Whistler's at the Grosvenor Galleries it is un-
studio. 00000 necessary, even if it were possible to do
The drawings owned by Mr. Bliss form so in the space available, to discuss in
in themselves a remarkably interesting col- detail the various phases of the art of this
lection, almost every imaginable medium " belated Old Master," as Legros has not
being represented—lead pencil, pen, gold inaptly been called by his sincere ad-
and silver point, chalk and charcoal, sepia mirers. As regards his work as an etcher,
wash, water-colour—and also divers com- that was discussed at considerable length
binations of these, such as pen and water- by Mr. Shaw Sparrow in this magazine
16
" LES MENDIANTS DE BRUGES "
ETCHING (3RD STATE)
BY ALPHONSE LEGROS
study in oil on cardboard ; both appear colour, pen, wash and oil, and in one case,
to have been painted between 1855 and pen and oil with etching. 0 0 0
1858, when Legros was a youth, and The crowning glory of the collection,
belong to a series of designs illustrating however, is the incomparable series of
the life of the Trappist Monks, upon etchings, dry-points and lithographs which
which he was engaged prior to his migra- Mr. Bliss has with indefatigable zeal
tion to England. Les Moines Bucherons gathered together from many sources—
also belongs to this series. The picture not absolutely complete, indeed, but com-
L'Angelus, dated 1859, representing a prising many impressions of extreme
group of country folk — women and rarity. As an etcher Legros was ex-
children—inside a church, was praised traordinarily prolific, his plates numbering
by Baudelaire and bought by Seymour several hundred, but as Mr. Campbell
Haden (who also bought Le Manege), Dodgson has observed, it is not the
shortly before Whistler, finding Legros quantity but the quality of his production
in " so deplorable a condition that it that assures him an eminent place among
needed God or some lesser person to pull nineteenth century masters. 0 0
him out of it," brought him to London, In briefly recording this unique display
where he worked for a time in Whistler's at the Grosvenor Galleries it is un-
studio. 00000 necessary, even if it were possible to do
The drawings owned by Mr. Bliss form so in the space available, to discuss in
in themselves a remarkably interesting col- detail the various phases of the art of this
lection, almost every imaginable medium " belated Old Master," as Legros has not
being represented—lead pencil, pen, gold inaptly been called by his sincere ad-
and silver point, chalk and charcoal, sepia mirers. As regards his work as an etcher,
wash, water-colour—and also divers com- that was discussed at considerable length
binations of these, such as pen and water- by Mr. Shaw Sparrow in this magazine
16
" LES MENDIANTS DE BRUGES "
ETCHING (3RD STATE)
BY ALPHONSE LEGROS