# Beggar with Hat in Hand (Mendiant avec son chapeau a la main)

**Alphonse Legros** (French, 1837–1911)  
etching and drypoint

Courtesy National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1943.3.5463. [The museum's record](https://www.nga.gov/collection/art-object-page.8385.html).

## 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._

Alphonse Legros made this. It is now at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, DC.

### 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](https://www.ochreeditions.com/artists/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._

## Facts

- Type: Print
- Century: 19th century
- Subjects: Tree, Male figure, Hat
- Colour: brown
- Rights: public domain (CC0 1.0); free to use for any purpose.

## Get it

- Free download, full resolution: https://img.ochreeditions.com/m/1348.jpg?dl=1
- Image: https://img.ochreeditions.com/a/1348/1920.jpg
- Giclée reproduction on Hahnemühle Photo Rag: 8 × 10 in $28; 11 × 14 in $38; 12 × 16 in $42; 16 × 20 in $56; 18 × 24 in $68; 20 × 30 in $86
- Framed reproduction: 8 × 10 in $78; 11 × 14 in $98; 12 × 16 in $108; 16 × 20 in $138; 18 × 24 in $164; 20 × 30 in $208
- Canvas reproduction: 8 × 10 in $58; 11 × 14 in $72; 12 × 16 in $79; 16 × 20 in $98; 18 × 24 in $118
- Print-ready file: 8 × 10 in $2; 11 × 14 in $2; 12 × 16 in $3; 16 × 20 in $3; 18 × 24 in $3; 20 × 30 in $5

Sizes stop where the museum's file would print below 150 pixels per inch. Everything sold is a reproduction, made to order. [Order a print](https://www.ochreeditions.com/art/beggar-with-hat-in-hand-mendiant-avec-son-chapeau-a-la-main-nga-8385).