Professor Alphonse Legros HRSA
Born 8 May 1837
Died 8 December 1911
Active: 1863 - 1947
Country of birth: France
Country of death: United Kingdom
Painter, etcher, teacher, sculptor, engraver
Born at rue La Verrerie, Dijon. Aged 11 apprenticed to a house painter. From c.1852 studied at the École Impériale de Dessin, Paris and under Horace Lecoq de Boisbaudran. Fellow pupils: Jules Dalou and Rodin. Studied: École des Beaux-Arts from 1855.
Exhibitions, Meetings, Awards and other Events
Exhibited at The Royal Scottish Academy Exhibition, 1826-
1911 - 1947
Exhibited at the annual exhibition 4 times: 1911 (3 works), 1912 (8 works), 1924 (1 work) and 1947 (3 works).
Exhibited at Loan Exhibition of Works by Alphonse Legros (Nottingham Castle Museum), 1912
1912
Note that the works were exhibited posthumously.
Exhibited at Loan Exhibition of Works by Alphonse Legros (Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery), 1913
1913
Note that the works were exhibited posthumously.
Institutional and Business Connections
Elected honorary member of The Royal Scottish Academy
1911
p. xxxvii
Principal of Slade School of Fine Art
September 1876 - June 1893
Listed as Slade Professor. The 1885 'Calendar' notes that instruction in sculpture was provided by Legros (p. 104). Legros is listed in these roles until 1892-1893.
Professor at Slade School of Fine Art
1873 (Circa) - 1893 (Circa)
Teacher at Royal College of Art (including National Art Training School)
1875 - 1881
Listed as Master of Etching. See 'List of Staff' in the 'Report of the Departmental Committee on the Royal College of Art' (1911), p. 60.
Personal and Professional Connections
Assistant was Francis Derwent Wood
1891
Taught Lilian Vereker Hamilton
Forrer notes that Hamilton studied under Legros at the Slade School of Art, London from 1881 to 1886. See Forrer, vol. 7, (1923), p. 413.
Taught William Blake Richmond
See Forrer, vol. 5, (1912), p. 118. No dates are given.
Taught Sophia Rosamond Praeger
1888
While at the Slade School of Art
Taught Florence Newman
1890 (Circa)
Newman is listed as a pupil of Legros: see Forrer, vol. 4, (1909), p. 254, no dates are given. However the Census Returns state she was an art student around 1891.
Teacher to Lydia Gay
Listed as a contemporary sculptor and medallist 'of the school of Alphonse Legros': see Forrer, vol. 2, (1904), p. 223, no dates are given.
Teacher to Gustav Natorp
Based on information in Lampert, 'Rodin', London, 2006, p. 35.
Teacher to Elinor Jessie Marie Hallé
Probably in the early or mid-1880s.
Teacher to Effie (Euphrosyne) Stillman
Probably in the early or mid-1880s.
Descriptions of Practice
Listed as medallist Biographical Dictionary of Medallists, Coin, Gem, and Seal-Engravers, Mint Masters, &c., Ancient and Modern with References to their Works, B.C. 500 - A.D. 1900, Volume VII, 1923 Biographical Dictionary of Medallists
Forrer lists a number of medallic works including a portrait medallion of Thomas Carlyle (illustrated, p. 545). Legros exhibited at the New York International Medallic Exhibition in March 1910, and also exhibited a number of bronze portrait medals at the Royal Academy, London, in 1882. See vol. 7, (1923), pp. 545-546.
Sources
Catalogue of the Memorial Exhibition of works by the Late Francis Derwent Wood, R.A.
1926
p.7.
Irish Arts Review Yearbook, 2000
2000
pp. 34-35
Loan Exhibition of Works by Alphonse Legros, 1912
1912
pp. 1-22.
Oxford Dictionary of National Biography
2004
Timothy Wilcox, ‘Legros, Alphonse (1837–1911)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, Sept 2004; online edn, May 2008 [http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/34480, accessed 25 July 2009]
University College London. Calendar. Session 1876-1877
1876
p. 44.
University College London. Calendar. Session 1885-1886
1885
p. 104.
University College London. Calendar. Session 1892-1893
1892
p. 79.
Citing this record
'Professor Alphonse Legros HRSA', Mapping the Practice and Profession of Sculpture in Britain and Ireland 1851-1951, University of Glasgow History of Art and HATII, online database 2011 [http://sculpture.gla.ac.uk/view/person.php?id=msib4_1230561885, accessed 22 Sep 2023]