id:			166679
accession number:	2008.392
share license status:	CC0
url:			https://clevelandart.org/art/2008.392
updated:		2022-01-04 17:44:23.990000

Head of a Man, 1886. Alphonse Legros (French, 1837-1911). Metalpoint; sheet: 31.5 x 23 cm (12 3/8 x 9 1/16 in.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Bequest of Muriel Butkin 2008.392

title:				Head of a Man
title in original language:	
series:				
series in original language:	
creation date:			1886
creation date earliest:		1886
creation date latest:		1886
current location:		
creditline:			Bequest of Muriel Butkin
copyright:			

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culture:	France, 19th century
technique:	metalpoint
department:	Drawings
collection:	Drawings
type:		Drawing
find spot:	
catalogue raisonne: 

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CREATORS

* Alphonse Legros (French, 1837-1911)  - artist

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measurements: Sheet: 31.5 x 23 cm (12 3/8 x 9 1/16 in.)
state of the work:	
edition of the work: 	

support materials:

	description:	white clay-coated board, laid down on cardboard, overmatted with cardboard mount
	watermarks:	

inscriptions:

	inscription:	signed, upper right, in metalpoint: A. Legros [underlined] / 1886 (according to Butkin records, above the preceding there is an inscription, currently covered by the mount, that reads "à mon ami F. W. Burton"); verso of secondary support, lower left, in graphite: Le gros [sideways]
	translation:	
	remark:		

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CURRENT EXHIBITIONS

	title:		French Master Drawings from the Collection of Muriel Butkin
	opening date:   2001-08-26T00:00:00
	<i>French Master Drawings from the Collection of Muriel Butkin</i>. The Cleveland Museum of Art (organizer) (August 26-October 28, 2001); Dahesh Museum of Art (February 19-May 18, 2002).

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LEGACY EXHIBITIONS

* <em>T. Edward Hanley Collection</em>. Philadelphia Museum of Art (1957).<br><br><em>Selections from the Collection of Dr. and Mrs. T. Edward Hanley</em>, Gallery of Modern Art, New York (January 3 - March 12, 1967); Philadelphia Museum of Art (April 6 - May 28, 1967); Denver Art Museum (February 22 - April 30, 1968).<br><em><br>Visages du dix-neuvième siècle</em>, Galerie Jacques Fischer-Chantal Kiener, Paris (December 1 - 15, 1977).

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PROVENANCE

	T. Edward Hanley, Bradford, PA
	date: by 1957-before 1967
	footnotes: 	
			
			* According to old exhibition labels, now removed.
			
			
	citations: 	


	Muriel Butkin [1916-2008], Shaker Heights, OH, by bequest to the Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH
	date: 1977-2008
	footnotes: 	
	citations: 	


	Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH
	date: 2008-
	footnotes: 	
	citations: 	


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fun fact: 
The artist James Abbott McNeill Whistler encouraged Alphonse Legros to visit London in 1863, and he spent the rest of his life there.

digital description: 
This drawing, which appears to be a portrait at first glance, is difficult to categorize. Alphonse Legros created many such images while teaching in London, at the school of South Kensington and then at the Slade School, where he advised his students to directly copy the Old Masters. Legros combined depiction of live models with references to art of the past, as seen here. He used the thin lines of metalpoint for expressive means on this sheet.

wall description: 
It would be difficult to label this drawing as a portrait, an ideal head, or the transformation of a Renaissance figure into a contemporary person because the art of Alphonse Legros repeatedly combines these elements. The idealized beauty of the head evokes a Renaissance concept of perfection, and the use of the metal point technique harks back to that earlier time as well.
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RELATED WORKS

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CITATIONS

	<em>Selections from the Collection of Dr. and Mrs. T. Edward Hanley. </em>Exh. Cat. New York: Gallery of Modern Art, 1967.
	page number: 	Mentioned: p. 63
	url:		

	<em>Visages du dix-neuvième siècle</em>. Exh. Cat. Paris: Galerie Jacques Fischer-Chantal Kiener, 1977.
	page number: 	Mentioned and reproduced: no. 25
	url:		

	Foster, Carter E., Sylvain Bellenger, and Patrick Shaw Cable. <em>French Master Drawings from the Collection of Muriel Butkin</em>. Exh. Cat. Cleveland: Cleveland Museum of Art, 2001.
	page number: 	Mentioned: pp. 118-19, 143, no. 54; Reproduced: p. 119
	url:		

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IMAGES

web:	https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/2008.392/2008.392_web.jpg
print:	https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/2008.392/2008.392_print.jpg
full:	https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/2008.392/2008.392_full.tif