Morning on the River c. 1900

Alphonse Legros created this etching, "Morning on the River," sometime in the 19th century. It depicts a worker pulling a boat onto the riverbank, while another figure is tending to the opposite shore. Legros was part of a generation of artists who challenged the French Academy's hierarchy, which privileged history painting above other genres. This print champions the everyday life of the working class instead. Legros was deeply influenced by the social realism of artists like Courbet and Millet, focusing on the dignity of labor and the beauty of the natural world. Legros eventually taught at the Slade School of Fine Art in London. His institutional position allowed him to influence a new generation of etchers, reviving etching as a fine art. To understand this work better, research into the social and economic conditions of 19th-century France, as well as the history of art academies, will help us understand the artwork. This helps us understand how such artwork reflects the changing values and social concerns of the time.