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Head of a man

Maker

(artist)
1837-1911

Title

Head of a man

Date of Production

1894

Medium

metalpoint with scratching out used to create white highlights on pink-prepared laid paper

Dimensions

Height: 33.8 cm
Width: 25 cm

Accession Number

D.2013.XX.3

Mode of Acquisition

Donato Esposito, gift, in memory of his father, Giuseppe Esposito, 2013

Credit

The Courtauld, London (Samuel Courtauld Trust)/ Gift of Donato Esposito in memory of his father Giuseppe Esposito

Copyright

Work in the public domain

Location

Not currently on display

Keywords

Label Text

Born in Dijon, Alphonse Legros (1837-1911) received his artistic training in Paris before moving to England in 1863 as a young man. He settled permanently in London and became Slade Professor at the University College in 1876. Legros is known to have encouraged his students to learn from the Old Masters, as is evident in his copies using traditional drawing techniques. This large drawing of the head of a young man, signed and dated 1894, is a beautiful example of Legros’s mature practice. Executed in metalpoint on red-prepared paper it is modelled with white in a sophisticated technique, the white heightening being partially added with the brush and partially the result of scratching. The head is copied after an Italian Renaissance model, probably a pastiche of silverpoint drawings by Perugino (BM, inv. no. Pp,1.26) and Raphael (Ashmolean, inv. no. WA1846).

Provenance

given by the artist to Arsène Alexandre (1859-1937); Eric G. Carlson, New York (1940-2016), by 1997 (his inventory number on mount, since removed); from whom purchased by Donato Esposito, July 2013; Gift of Dr Donato Esposito in memory of his father, Giuseppe Esposito, 2013

Exhibition History

Courtauld Connects Regional Programme - Radical Drawing, Herbert Art Gallery and Museum, Coventry, 18/10/2019-19/01/2020

Literature

Sloan, Rachel, 'Head of a man: a new drawing by Alphonse Legros' in 'Master Drawings', Spring 2021 - pp. 45-48; LIX, 1
pp. 45-48
fig. 1

Inscriptions

Watermark: Watermark: Recto, upper left corner: fragment of a large eagle.

Inscription: Recto: upper right corner, metalpoint, signed and dated: “A.Legros / 1894”. Verso: upper right corner, graphite: "pour Mr Arsène Alexandre". Mount (inside on back board, now removed, recorded in Acquisition Report): lower left, graphite, Eric G. Carlson’s inventory number: “97.1.256”; lower centre, graphite: “ex. Coll. Arsene Alexandre (see verso)”; lower right, graphite: “LEGROS Alphonse $3000”.

Collector's mark: none.

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