Louis LEGRAND (1863 – 1951)

Tea time takes place between the modern and subtle compositions of Helleu and the more suburban ones of Forain or Willette. Two women are having tea with a third interlocutor who is supposed to be the painter.

The interior is modest, three paintings are hung on the wall, a curtain is stretched in the background. The women are seated on Thonet 14 chairs, at the time sold for the price of a bottle of table wine.

The nudity of the young woman in the background and the palette placed next to the cups show that the painter offers tea to his models after or before a posing session. The painting translates the love of life and of women. The scene is imbued with veracity and the sweetness of the anecdote.

French painter, pastellist, engraver and illustrator, Louis Legrand was born in 1963 in Dijon. Painter, watercolourist, engraver and illustrator, he is a multifaceted artist.

After training at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts in Dijon, he moved to the capital in 1884 and became a student of the brilliant and scandalous Félicien Rops who introduced him to all the techniques. He made a career in Paris until his death in 1951.

Bibliography:

• Camille Mauclair, Louis Legrand, painter and engraver, Floury, Paris 1910

• Dictionary of illustrators-1800-1914, Idé and Calande, Neufchatel, Paris 1989

• Bénézit, “Louis Legrand”, Oxford Art Online

Museums:

• In France: In Dijon, the Magnin national museum and the fine arts museum; in Strasbourg, the museum of modern and contemporary art (two paintings).