Head of a Man

1886

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