Portrait of John Seymour Lucas

Alphonse Legros 1837-1911, was a French painter and sculptor, who lived in London from 1863 until his death in 1911. He was a teacher of etching and drawing and became Slade Professor of Art at University College London and prior to that taught at the South Kensington School, he taught by way of demonstration rather than instruction and taught his pupils to draw from memory which is what this picture displays. The picture was drawn in 1907 and yet Lucas was approaching 60 years old at the time, Legros knew Lucas from his early days in England and presented him here as when he first knew him , in his early 20's. Legros was a superb draughtsman and instructed his pupils how to draw from memory which is a vitally important skill if you want to become a painter. This is a museum quality drawing and is is rare for Legros as his drawings are sometimes unfinished or reduced to a sketch, this is a completed study and probably drawn within an hour, this was the aim of Legros in teaching to show his pupils that it was possible to achieve such quality in so short a time. In my view one of the best draughtsman in pencil and charcoal of all time.