Landscape with Birch Trees (Le paysage aux bouleaux)
1878
Medium
lithograph
Classification
Department
CG-E
Museum
National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.
Credit
Rosenwald Collection
Accession Number
1943.3.5361
Art Historical Context
In the tranquil *Landscape with Trees (Le paysage auxaux)*, created in 1878 French-born artist Alphonse Legros captures the delicate beauty of the natural world. A master printmaker who later became a pivotal figure in British art education at the Slade School of Fine, Legros drew from his Realist roots—echoing influences like Courbet and Millet—to evoke the subtle textures of birch trunks and foliage. This lithograph, housed in the National Gallery of's Rosenwald Collection, the late 19th-century fascination with everyday rural scenes amid rapid industrialization. Lithography, Legros' chosen...
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...