Portrait of the Artist Alphonse Legros

Painted entirely en plein air during an outing in the French countryside, Fantin-Latour depicts his fellow artist and friend Alphonse Legros in a lively and direct manner. The two became close while attending the Ecole des Beaux-Arts in Paris. Two years after Fantin-Latour painted this portrait, he and Legros joined with English artist James Abbot McNeil Whistler to form the famous “Group of Three” motivated by their aversion to the contemporary academic system of artistic training. Fantin-Latour painted Legros on several occasions and this is the earliest known example.