Le Lutrin, 1863-68. Oil on canvas, 50 x 52 inches (126.5 x 132 cm). Collection of the Petit Palais, Musée des Beaux-Arts de la Ville de Paris, museum no. PDUT1719.
The painting features a bearded priest in rich vestments at a lectern, accompanied by another priest in a white cope to his right, likely carrying a processional cross. The young man in the white surplice to the left of the priest is an altar server. A young acolyte, holding a long taper candle, wears a scarlet mozzetta-like shoulder cape and scarlet cap. The gold colour of the priest’s cope suggests they are celebrating a major religious festival and are probably singing solemn vespers from the large antiphonary volume. The picture is painted in the strong rich colours reminiscent of Venetian High Renaissance painting, as distinct from the more sober, sombre tones found in many of Legros’s paintings of religious observances.
Liz Prettejohn has pointed out the similarity between some of Legros’s modern religious paintings featuring male ecclesiastics performing religious ceremonies and works by Simeon Solomon, such as his The Mystery of Faith of 1870 (82). The similarity extends beyond just subject matter to the close cropping of the subjects. Alessandro di Marco, who was the model for Solomon's Mystery of Faith, modelled for several of Legros's ecclesiastical pictures as well, including his Prêtre au Lutrin of 1870.
Bénédite gives an interesting account of the early history of this work: “It was ill received in the first place at the Salon of 1863, where it was hung in a deplorable position; but in 1868, after having taken out one of the figures, Legros sent it again to the Salon, where it won a medal” (12).
Bibliography
Bénédite, Léonce. “Alphonse Legros, Painter and Sculptor.” The Studio XXIX (June 1903), 3-22.
Prettejohn, Elizabeth. “The Scandal of M. Alphonse Legros.” Art History XLIV (January 16, 2021): 78-107.
Last modified 11 November 2022