Sir Edward John Poynter
1877
Medium
etching and drypoint in black on laid paper
Dimensions
plate: 25.7 x 17.1 cm (10 1/8 x 6 3/4 in.) sheet: 35 x 25.8 cm (13 3/4 x 10 3/16 in.)
Classification
Department
CG-E
Museum
National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.
Credit
Gift of Philip and Judith Benedict
Accession Number
1997.88.11
Art Historical Context
This striking portrait by Alphonse Legros captures Sir Edward John Poynter a leading Victorian painter and future president of the Royal Academy, in 1877. Legros, a French-born artist who settled in Britain and taught at the Slade School of Fine Art, created the work as an etching and drypoint on laid paper. The medium’s fine, incised lines and velvety drypoint burr allow for both precise detail and subtle tonal depth, reflecting the nineteenth-century revival of etching as a respected artistic practice. Legros’s restrained yet expressive approach highlights Poynter’s thoughtful gaze and form...
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...