Le Paysage à la Mare (Landscape at the Pond). Etching and drypoint in black ink on ivory paper, 1869; 9 ⅛ x 11 ⅝ inches (23.1 x 29.5 cm) – sheet size. Collection of the National Gallery of Art, Washington, accession no. 1952.10.40.
This print exists in four states but only impressions of the 4th state are common with 50 known impressions. This etching shows a cottage with outbuildings nestled amongst trees and with a pond in the foreground. Sidney Colvin was particularly impressed with this work: “There is a wonderful landscape of a peasant’s dwelling alone beside a little wood - a rough bank and pond in the foreground - with I know not what brooding desolation and shadow of ominousness in the air: the trees of the wood huddle together, a suspected covert for ill deeds; the cottage looks as if no love or joy had harbour in it“ (143). — Dennis T. Lanigan
Bibliography
Colvin, Sidney. ”The Etchings of Alphonse Legros.” The Portfolio I (1870): 140-43.
Last modified 25 November 2022