H.W. Longfellow, 2nd plate
1826 to 1850
Medium
transfer lithograph?
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
1948.6.36
Art Historical Context
Discover the evocative portrait *H.W. Longfellow, 2nd plate*, a transfer lithograph by French-born artist Alphonse Leg (1837–1911). This print captures the likeness of the renowned American poet Henry Wadsworth Long, whose works like *Evangeline* and *The Song of Hiawatha* enchanted 19th-century audiences. Created sometime between 1826 and1850, it reflects the era's fascination with literary celebrities, blending portraiture with the burgeoning art of printmaking to make famous faces accessible to a wide public. Legros, a master of Realism who later championed etching in Britain, employed the...
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...