Portrait of George Frederic Watts
Medium
Etching
Dimensions
Sheet: 16 7/8 × 11 13/16 in. (42.9 × 30 cm) Plate: 12 5/16 × 7 15/16 in. (31.2 × 20.1 cm)
Classification
Prints
Department
Drawings and Prints
Museum
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
Credit
Anonymous Gift, 1917
Accession Number
17.1
Tags
Art Historical Context
Step into the world of Victorian portraiture with Alphonse Legros's *Portrait of George Frederic Watts* (1879), a finely wrought etching that captures the esteemed British painter in contemplative profile. Legros, a French-born artist who became a key figure in London's art scene, masterfully rendered Watts—known for his grand symbolic canvases like *Hope*—using the precise lines of etching. This intimate print, measuring about 12 x 8 inches on the plate, highlights Watts's dignified presence amid the Aesthetic Movement's emphasis on beauty and craft. Etching, an intaglio technique where acid...