39. Alphonse Legros
(1837-1911)

Une Vallée en Bourgogne

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Legros, Une Vallée

Une Vallée en Bourgogne

Etching and drypoint, Bliss 603 iv/vi, ex collection: Frank E. Bliss (but without the stamp), 127 x 250 mm. A fine, proof impression on laid paper with full margins, signed in pencil. Legros did not often note the locations of his landscapes, being far more occupied with the pattern of the scene than with its identification. Here, however, he gives us the golden slopes of Burgundy and if one cannot actually smell the grapes fermenting, the great valley seems like the proper place for their origin. But, once again, his interest is in patterning and the farm buildings and the bridge are there, like the trees and vegetation, not because they are literally there, but because they are part of the composition. Reality is subservient to design, and design idealizes the memory. We have other landscapes by Legros; check “Search Our Inventory” on this website.