Louis Legrand

Legrand used the improvisatory quality of etching to emphasize his subject matter. These satirical vignettes of three almost-identical women suggest the tedium and conformity the artist saw as characteristic of middle-class life. The trio appears near a portrait, presumably of their father, implying their familial ties, and one dangles a garish mask of the artist’s own face.

Here, as in most of his prints, Legrand used drypoint, a technique that involved drawing directly onto a copper plate with a needle. He favored this tool for the velvety black line it produced in early impressions. Legrand experimented avidly with the drypoint process, sometimes drawing on his plates with such unusual tools as a dentist’s drill.