Le Moine À l’Orgue

Catalogue number: SO 0056
Artist: Alphonse Legros
Date: 1868
Medium: Etching
Dimensions [to plate mark]: 215 x 300 mm
Catalogues: Malassis & Thibaudeau 63, Bliss 63
State: I/II

Subject

The subject is closely related to Legros' depiction of a monk playing the organ in his important painting Demoiselles du mois de Marie (1868) and is therefore dated here to the same year. The drawing Monk Playing the Organ held by the National Gallery of Canada (accession no. 37567) also has close similarities to both the painting and the etching and is dated by the museum to the period 1865-70.

The Demoiselles du mois de Marie was exhibited at the Dudley Gallery on London in 1868 and was discussed in the British art press. The critic of The Spectator commented “M. Legros paints faces such as all may think they have seen, yet invests them with a meaning and a fervour which lifts them altogether above the common-place. In this picture every head deserves study, but most of all the head of the monk playing on the organ.”

Printing

According to Bliss, the first state of the plate is ‘rare’.

History

Purchased from Ebay seller open-24-seven on 23 July 2025, Order number:06-13362-67683