Beggar with Hat in Hand (Mendiant avec son chapeau a la main)
An old man with a long beard sits with his head bowed, his hat held in one hand and resting on his knee, before a bare tree trunk. More about this work
About this work
An old man with a long beard sits with his head bowed, his hat held in one hand and resting on his knee, before a bare tree trunk. Alphonse Legros returned again and again to beggars, vagrants and the rural poor, drawing them with sober sympathy rather than sentiment. A Frenchman who settled in London in 1863 and later taught at the Slade School of Fine Art, he was a central figure in the nineteenth-century revival of etching; here etched line and drypoint together give the cloak its rough texture and the shadows their velvety depth.
Written by Ochre Editions.
What you’re looking at
The image depicts the upper half of a man's body, seated with his head tilted downwards. He has a pronounced brow and a long beard. His hair is sparse and closely cropped. He is wearing a textured cloak or robe, holding a hat in one hand and resting it on his knee. In the background, there is a large, bare tree trunk with bare branches.
Description from the National Gallery of Art.
How it was made
- Drypoint
- Lines scratched straight into the plate with a needle throw up a ridge of metal, the burr, which holds ink and prints a soft, furred line. The burr wears down, so early impressions are the richest.
- Etching
- The artist draws with a needle through a waxy coating on a copper plate, and acid bites the exposed lines. The plate is then inked, wiped and printed under pressure, so the line keeps the freedom of drawing.
Alphonse Legros
French, 1837–1911
Legros trained in Dijon and Paris, where he befriended Whistler and Fantin-Latour, and in 1863 he settled in London at Whistler’s suggestion. His etchings and paintings of peasants, beggars, monks and forests carry the sober realism of his French training. He became an influential teacher, serving as Slade Professor at University College London from 1876 to 1892, and helped to revive etching and the cast portrait medal in Britain.
Written by Ochre Editions.
Rights and the museum’s record
Public domain. The National Gallery of Art has dedicated this image to the public domain under CC0, so anyone may copy, adapt and use it, for any purpose, without asking. Our prints and files are reproductions made from the museum’s image; the museum doesn’t endorse them.
- Object number
- 1943.3.5463
- Credit
- Courtesy National Gallery of Art, Washington
- Type
- Licence
- CC0 1.0 Universal
- Museum record
- See it on the museum’s site
