Woods in Winter Sun, 2nd plate (Soleil d'hiver dans les bois) 

Alphonse Legros made this etching, "Woods in Winter Sun, 2nd plate," sometime in the late 19th century. Legros was part of a generation of artists who saw printmaking as a way to democratize art, making it available beyond the elite circles of wealthy collectors. This image taps into a growing interest in landscape and the natural world. But it does so with a distinctly modern sensibility. There's a starkness to the scene, a lack of picturesque charm, that sets it apart from earlier landscape traditions. Legros was working in France at a time of rapid social change, with the rise of industrialization and urbanization. This print can be seen as a response to those changes, a reminder of the beauty and solitude that can still be found in nature. We can only fully understand how the image creates meaning when we consider the cultural values and historical associations that shaped its production. To understand it better, we might research the market for prints in 19th-century France or explore the changing attitudes toward nature in this period.