Subject
The plate seems always to have been intended as an illustration to L'Histoire Du Bonhomme Misere, Avec Six Eaux-Fortes Par Alphonse Legros.
Se Trouve à Londres chez R. Geraut, Editeur. 1877. The subject is taken from the French folk-tale of ‘The Old Man Misery’. This story recounts the fate of a poor man whose only posession was a pear tree from which village boys stole the pears freely. One evening Bonhomme Misere offers hospitality to two strangers who are later revealed to be the Apostles Peter and Paul (or, in some versions of the tale, Christ and St. Peter). In return for his generosity, the Apostles ‘bless’ the old man with protection for his pear tree; whoever climbs it to take the pears will be forever trapped within its branches. Later, Death comes for Misere but he also persuades him to climb into the tree, where he too becomes trapped. But Bonhomme Misere's avoidance of mortality proves to be double-edged: Saved from death, ‘Misery’ becomes a permanent presence in human existence.
This is the final version of the print with the extension of the title to read La légende du Bonhomme Misère.
Inscriptons: Bottom left: A. Legros Del et Sc. Centre: La légende du Bonhomme Misère. Bottom right: Vve. A. Cadart,Edit, Imp. 56, Bard Haussmann, Paris.
History
Purchased in a lot of eleven unframed etchings by Legros, online from Semley Auctioneers in Shaftsbury, Dorset on 8th November 2025.
