In the Forest of Conteville (Dans la foret de Conteville)
1826 to 1850
Medium
etching
Classification
Department
CG-E
Museum
National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.
Credit
Rosenwald Collection
Accession Number
1943.3.5476
Art Historical Context
Step into the serene depths ofIn the Forest of Conte (Dans la forêt de Conteville)*, captivating etching by Alphonse Legros created between 1826 and 1850. Legros, a French-born artist who later thrived in Britain, was renowned for his masterful printmaking, blending Realism's truthful observation of nature with a poetic sensitivity. This work, housed in the National Gallery of Art Rosenwald Collection (Department CG-E), evokes the quiet majesty of a French woodland, likely inspired by the artist's native landscapes near Conteville. Etching, Legros's preferred medium here, involves incising li...
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...