Detail from The Canal, Amsterdam, 1889, James McNeill Whistler, The Hunterian, University of Glasgow

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Alphonse Legros

Nationality: French
Date of birth: 8 May 1837
Place of birth: Dijon, France
Date of death: 8 December 1911
Place of death: Watford, UK
Category: painter

Identity:

Alphonse Legros, painter, etcher and art teacher.

Life:

Legros painted portraits, landscape, genre and historical subjects. He had studied at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts and worked as a scene-painter. During the late 1850s, he met Whistler through Fantin Latour in Paris and for a while, Whistler, Fantin and Legros became the 'Société de Trois', which was formed in October 1858.

In May 1863, Legros and Whistler together visited Amsterdam. Legros settled in London in the summer of 1863 and the left hand male figure in Wapping y035, was described by Rossetti: it was 'done from Alphonse Legros, though painted in from him just as he was in the first instance, is to be quite differently continued, to represent a sort of Spanish sailor'.

By April 1867, the friendship between Whistler and Legros was over, after a row that came to blows. Friends tried to intervene (see GUW #11312) but the two men were never reconciled. The reasons for their dispute are unclear but it has been suggested that Legros became jealous when Whistler assisted Fantin Latour in obtaining a commission to copy the works of old masters. However, Du Maurier describes Legros as having received the same or a similar commission. They also seem to have had a protracted quarrel about money dating back to 1864, and another dispute involving Legros' marriage (see GUW #02505). Legros' place in the 'Société de Trois' was taken by Albert Moore.

His work was collected by Aleco Ionides, and he became Slade Professor of Fine Art at University College, London between 1876-1892. He was affiliated with the RE, Royal Academy, 1864-1889; Grosvenor Gallery, New Gallery and elsewhere, 1864-1882.

Legros became a naturalised British citizen in 1880.

Bibliography:

Du Maurier, Daphne, (ed.), The Young George du Maurier: A Selection of his Letters, 1860-67, London, 1951 , p. 248; Wood, Christopher, The Dictionary of Victorian Artists 2nd ed., revised, Woodbridge, 1978; Monneret, Sophie, L'Impressionisme et son époque, Paris, 1978-79; Ionides, Luke Memories, Paris, 1925 (reprinted with an afterword by Julia Ionides, Ludlow, 1996) , p. 13.