The Pit and the Pendulum, second Plate
1861
Medium
Etching on ivory laid paper
Dimensions
Plate: 26.5 × 36.7 cm (10 7/16 × 14 1/2 in.); Sheet: 27.4 × 37.2 cm (10 13/16 × 14 11/16 in.)
Classification
etching
Department
Prints and Drawings
Museum
Art Institute of Chicago
Accession Number
104911
Art Historical Context
Alphonse Legros, a French-born artist who later became a prominent figure British art circles, created *The Pit and the Pend, second Plate* in1861 as part of a series of etchings inspired by Edgar Allan Poe's chilling 1842 tale of Inquisition-era torture. This second plate captures the story's nightmarish tension, likely depicting the protagonist's harrowing ordeal with the descending pendulum blade. Legros, influenced by Realism and the dramatic etchings of Rembrandt, brought a gothic intensity to his illustrations, bridging 19th-century literature and visual art during a time when Poe's maca...
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...