Ex Voto, 1860–61. Oil on canvas, 68½ x 38¼ inches (174 × 197 cm). Collection of Musée des Beaux-Arts de Dijon, Dijon, France.
This is one of Legros’s early masterpieces involving religious observances in his native France. In 1864 it became the first work that Legros exhibited at the Royal Academy, It having been previously exhibited at the Paris Salon in 1861. Bénédite recalled the controversy that arose when it was exhibited at the Salon: ”The picture created an outburst of applause on the one hand, while on the other it formed the object of the most violent attacks. The women, ‘fixed’ with a realism, powerful, but calm and unexaggerated, kneeling or standing at the foot of a post bearing the image of the Crucifixion, with a streaked background of red and gold, set in a misty landscape suggestive of dreamland: this group, which moves the beholder by the deep conviction silently animating every face, young or old, fresh or wrinkled, attracted the bitterest criticism. Legros was accused of ‘reviving the scandal of the Enterrement d’ Ormans,’ and the critics were right in their keen-sighted hatred when they associated him with Courbet. Nevertheless, Legros received a ‘mention’ (12).
William Michael Rossetti in the Fine Arts Quarterly Review gave it a glowing review when it was exhibited at the Royal Academy:
There were, however, two other paintings which, although not properly speaking extremely popular, made a decided sensation, and - what is far more important - deserved to make it. These were the fresco of the Seasons, by Mr. Albert Moore, and the ‘Ex Voto’ of M. Legros: and they stand out in the exhibition of 1864 at least as prominently as any other works whatsoever… M. Legros's picture was not only one of the most important in the exhibition in largeness of treatment and in scale, but we have no hesitation in terming it the greatest work contributed. Representing a subject of deep thought not passionate emotion - a family of women dedicating a votive crucifixion-picture over the wayside grave of some friend or relative - the painting was equally (and we think absolutely) satisfying to the spectator who looks for lifelike or domestic realism, and to him who dwells more peculiarly upon the pathetic and emotional demands of the incident. To say this, is to imply that the painting could not really be better in essentials than it was: the handling also was full of manliness and solid pictorial style. In fact, we call it a great picture, and the man capable of producing it a great painter: and we cede to a Frenchman the honours of the British artistic year, 1864. The common objection to the work was that it was ugly; which was scarcely so much as a half-truth, and not even so relevant as it was true. The mere patrons of the pretty may depend upon it that they don’t know what ugliness, nor yet what beauty, means” (30-31).
The critic of The Art Journal found Legros’s painting unconventional and linked it to eccentricities by Whistler: “And as we seemed to have fallen for the moment into a vein of pictorial eccentricity and paradox, we may as well take flight to another room, where hangs aloft at the sky, ‘Ex Voto’ (230), by A. Legros. A murder appears to have occurred at no distant period on the confines of a forest, and the spot is marked, after the custom in many countries, by a picture, before which a company of women, near relatives of the deceased, have come in affectionate pilgrimage to pay their devotion. The figures are large, somewhat crude in the whites, at in mien more repellent than attractive. The style, wholly foreign to our English school, surprises by its novelty” (166).
F. G. Stephens in The Athenaeum surprisingly failed to find anything attractive in Legros’s contribution although recognizing its power: “We welcome a new artist in M. Legros, whose remarkable, though very ugly picture, Ex Voto (230), a French peasant family dedicating a votive tablet, on which is depicted the crucifixion, displays extraordinary power in painting, pathetic expressiveness, and a large style of drawing and composition. These are qualities seldom seen in force amongst us. The pathos of this picture would not have been less true if it had been expressed with at least some regard to beauty” (683).
An engraving of this work was published in the Gazette des Beaux-Art in 1903.
Bibliography
Bénédite, Léonce. “Alphonse Legros, Painter and Sculptor.” The Studio XXIX (June 1903), 30-22.
“The Royal Academy.” The Art Journal New Series III (June 1, 1864): 157-68.
Prettejohn, Elizabeth. “The Scandal of M. Alphonse Legros.” Art History XLIV (January 16, 2021): 78-107.
Rossetti, W. M. “Art-Exhibitions in London. The Royal Academy Exhibition.” Fine Arts Quarterly Review III (October 1864): 27-33.
Stephens, Frederic George. “Fine Arts. The Royal Academy.” The Athenaeum No. 1907 (May 14, 1864): 682-84.
Last modified 11 November 2022