Prospect (Le point de vue) 

Alphonse Legros made this print, Prospect, using etching. Legros's landscapes often evoke a sense of rural peace, but it's worth considering what they might say about urbanization and the changing role of the countryside in 19th-century France. This landscape, made in a period of rapid industrialization, shows us a broad panorama of farmland. In the foreground, we see two figures, perhaps a man and a woman, sitting on a bank, overlooking the scene. The composition, with its high vantage point, invites the viewer to contemplate the land and perhaps to consider their relationship to it. Legros was deeply engaged with the art world of his time, as a student in Paris, a friend of Courbet, and eventually a teacher in London. The pastoral quality of Prospect could be seen as a reflection of the changing social values of the time, in which the countryside was idealized as a respite from the pressures of urban life. To understand Legros’s place in art history, we can look to exhibition reviews, letters, and other primary source documents of the period. These resources help us understand how art, like this print, can reflect the values and anxieties of a particular time and place.