LEGROS, ALPHONSE (1837-1911), painter and etcher, was born at Dijon on May 8, 1837. In 1851 Legros left for Paris and, passing through Lyons, worked for six months as wall painter under the decorator Beuchot, who was painting the chapel of Cardinal Bonald in the cathedral. In Paris he studied with Cambon, with Lecoq de Boisbaudran, and at the evening classes of the Ecole des Beaux Arts. He sent two portraits to the Salon of 1857; one was rejected and formed part of the exhibition of protest organized by Bonvin in his studio; the other, which was accepted, was a profile portrait of his father, now in the museum at Tours. In 1859 Legros's "Angelus" was exhibited, the first of those quiet church interiors, with kneeling figures of women, by which he is best known as a painter. "Ex Voto," a work of great power and insight, painted in 1861, is now in the museum at Dijon.
Legros came to England in 1863. He became teacher of etching at the South Kensington school of art, and in 1876 Slade professor at University college, London. He was naturrlized as an Englishman in 1881, and remained at University college 17 years. His influence there was exerted to encourage a certain dis tinction, severity and truth of character in the work of his pupils, with a simple technique and a respect for the traditions of the old masters, until then somewhat foreign to English art. Experiments in all varieties of art work were practised; whenever the professor saw a fine example in the museum, or when a process interested him in a workshop, he never rested until he had mastered the technique and his students were trying their 'prentice hands at it. Legros considered the traditional journey to Italy a very impor tant part of artistic training, and he devoted a part of his salary to augment the income available for a traveling studentship. By
his influence on such students of the Slade school as C. W. Furse, William Strang, William Rothenstein and Harrington Mann, Eng lish art was again brought into closer touch with the main Euro pean tradition, and he contributed not a little to the revival of draughtsmanship in England at the close of the 19th century. His later works, of ter he resigned his professorship in 1892, were more in the free and ardent manner of his early days—imaginat ive landscapes, castles in Spain, and farms in Burgundy, etchings like the series of "The Triumph of Death," and the sculptured fountains for the gardens of the duke of Portland at Welbeck. He died at Watford on Dec. 8, 1911.
Pictures and drawings by Legros, besides those already men tioned, may be seen in the following museums : "Amende Ho norable," "Dead Christ," bronzes, medals and 22 drawings in the Luxembourg, Paris ; "Landscape," "Study of a Head," and por traits of Browning, Burne-Jones, Cassel, Huxley and Marshall, also "The Tinker" and six other works from the Ionides collection, at the Victoria and Albert museum, Kensington; "Femmes en priere," National Gallery of British Art; 35 drawings and etchings, the Print Room, British Museum; "Jacob's Dream" and twelve draw ings of the antique, Cambridge ; "Saint Jerome," two studies of heads and some drawings, Manchester; "The Pilgrimage" and "Study made before the Class," Walker art gallery, Liverpool; "Study of Heads," Peel Park museum, Salford. (C. Ho.; X.)