Portrait of Auguste Rodin 1860 - 1910

This portrait of Auguste Rodin was made by Alphonse Legros, who employed etching, a printmaking technique. The image begins as a metal plate, likely copper or zinc, on which the artist draws with a sharp needle. These lines are then bitten by acid, and then ink is applied, leaving the drawn lines to be transferred to paper. The etched lines have a crisp, precise quality, suited to the intimate nature of portraiture. Look closely, and you can see how Legros has varied the density and direction of the marks to create shading and volume. The etched line is not dissimilar to the drawn line, and it is the most direct and intimate of the printmaking mediums. In Legros’s hands, etching creates a sense of immediacy and directness. It bypasses the need for a translator to transfer ideas into material form, collapsing hierarchies of the art world. The meeting between subject and maker is immediate and raw, revealing the power of material to embody human form.