Artwork
View of a Farm, 2nd plate (La ferme du Bienheureux)
View of a Farm, 2nd plate (La ferme du Bienheureux) is an ink print by the Romanticist artist Alphonse Legros. It dates from 1874 and is held in the collection of the National Gallery of Art.
About this work
Overview
Created in 1874, *View of a Farm, 2nd plate (La ferme du Bienheureux)* is an intaglio print that records a tranquil rural setting. The composition centers on a modest farmhouse, a low fence, and a handful of trees rendered with dense, intersecting lines that give the foliage a tactile, almost three‑dimensional quality.
Subject & Meaning
The work presents a quiet agrarian landscape, emphasizing the simple architecture of the house and the surrounding vegetation. By focusing on the interplay of light and shadow through line rather than colour, the image conveys a sense of stillness and the modest dignity of country life.
Technique & Style
Legros employed drypoint, and possibly combined it with etching, to incise the image into a copper plate. The technique allows ink to collect in the burr of the lines, producing rich, velvety tones that model the trees and ground with a textured depth characteristic of the British etching revival.
History & Provenance
Born in France, Alphonse Legros later settled in Britain, where he became a naturalized citizen and a prominent teacher at the Slade School of Fine Art. His involvement in the mid‑19th‑century etching revival helped disseminate the drypoint method among his students and peers.
Context
The print reflects the broader 19th‑century interest in rural subjects and the technical experimentation of the period. Legros’s dual background in French academic training and British artistic circles positioned him to bridge continental and Anglo‑American approaches to printmaking.
Artist & collection
Artist
Alphonse Legros (French pronunciation: ; 8 May 1837 – 8 December 1911) was a French, later British, painter, etcher, sculptor, and medallist.
