Portrait of Edward D. Adams
Medium
Drypoint and etching; first state of three
Dimensions
Sheet: 11 7/8 × 8 11/16 in. (30.2 × 22 cm) Plate: 9 15/16 × 7 5/16 in. (25.2 × 18.5 cm)
Classification
Prints
Department
Drawings and Prints
Museum
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
Credit
Gift of Edward D. Adams, 1921
Accession Number
21.33.6
Tags
Art Historical Context
Alphonse Legros, a French-born artist who became a prominent figure in Britain's art scene, created this intimate *Portrait of Edward D.* in 1892. Legros, known for his masterful printmaking in the realist tradition, captures the likeness of Edward Dean Adams, a distinguished American financier and art collector. Rendered in drypoint and etching—the first state of three—this exemplifies the technical precision of 19th-century printmaking, the artist's direct incisions into the plate yield rich, velvety lines and subtle tonal variations. Drypoint, with its burr-raised textures, adds a tactile ...
About the Artist
Alphonse Legros|Edward Dean Adams · 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...