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Study of the Venus de Milo

Maker

(artist)
1837-1911

Title

Date of Production

1855

Medium

black chalk on laid paper (examined under microscope with Paper Conservator)

Dimensions

Height: 46.3 cm
Width: 27.6 cm

Accession Number

D.2014.XX.1

Mode of Acquisition

Jack Wakefield, gift, 2014

Credit

The Courtauld, London (Samuel Courtauld Trust)

Copyright

Work in the public domain

Location

Not currently on display

Keywords

Label Text

From Reading Drawings:
This drawing is dated 1855, the year Legros enrolled at the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris. Copying antique sculptures was a fundamental training method for students at the academy, who were required to submit their drawings to the professor for corrections. With several students copying the same subjects and using the same media, it was prudent for each artist to sign his work to avoid confusion. The Venus de Milo, only discovered in 1820 and donated to the Louvre in 1821, quickly became one of the most popular antique sculptures.

Notes

Signed and dated 1855, this large and highly finished graphite drawing is a remarkable study by the young Alphonse Legros. Here, the eighteen-year-old artist shows considerable skills as a draughtsman in his rendering of the Venus of Milo (Musée du Louvre). As a model of female grace and beauty, this iconic classical statue formed part of a canon of models artists copied during their training in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Around 1851, Legros had moved to Paris from his hometown of Dijon and in 1855 he attended the evening classes of the École des Beaux Arts. This sheet might well have been executed in this context. The drawing is of particular interest as it is an early and rather rare example of Legros’s love of drawing from the Antique, a practice he would promote throughout his career as a teacher.

Provenance

Gorringe's (South East England), September 2012, lot 1476 (along with D.2014.XX.2); purchased there by Jack Wakefield; Wakefield Gift 2014

Exhibition History

Drawings Gallery Display - Reading Drawings, The Courtauld Gallery, London, 21/01/2017-04/06/2017

Inscriptions

Watermark: Verso, lower left edge: "MICHALLET" (a variety of Ingres paper, type of handmade laid paper produced in one size, Royal (25 x 19 in.), available in white and eleven tints (source: George Seurat, The Drawings).

Collector's mark: none.

Inscription: Recto, lower left, brown ink, signed and dated by the artist: “A. Legros / 1855”; verso, lower left, graphite: “No. 57”. Mount (removed, mounted with the drawing), Recto and again Verso, both lower right, graphite: “31”. Mount (removed, mounted with the drawing), Verso: lower right, graphite: “C / GRIP / 4W”; lower left, blue ink, underlined: “2”.

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