Head of a Young Girl (Tete de jeune fille)
1826 to 1850
Medium
lithograph in sanguine
Classification
Department
CG-E
Museum
National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.
Credit
Gift of George Matthew Adams in memory of his mother, Lydia Havens Adams
Accession Number
1955.12.24
Art Historical Context
Alphonse Legros, a French-born artist who later became a key figure in British art circles, created *Head of a Young GirlTête de jeune fille)* sometime between 1826 and 1850. This lithograph in sanguine—a warm, reddish medium derived from iron oxide crayons—captures the delicate features of its young subject with remarkable tenderness and realism. Legros, associated with the Realist movement, favored such close-up portraits to explore human expression and everyday beauty, drawing from the traditions of Rembrandt and Spanish masters. Lithography, a revolutionary 19th-century printing technique...
About the Artist
Alphonse Legros · 1837–1911
Alphonse Legros (1837–1911) was born in Dijon, France, and trained in Paris at the drawing school of Horace Lecoq de Boisbaudran, whose unconventional teaching method — which emphasised memory drawing and acute observation over academic convention — would leave a lasting mark on Legros's practice. At Lecoq's school he formed friendships with Jules Dalou and Auguste Rodin that endured throughout hi...