Alexandre-Louis Leloir: Online exhibition
The exhibition opens online at 12 noon (BST) on Wednesday 5 August 2026.
From that time, please visit charlesede.com to view the available works.
Sales are made on a first come, first served basis. Works cannot be reserved or placed on hold.
Unless otherwise stated, drawings are sold unframed. A simple black frame can be supplied for any unframed drawing for £50.
Although this is an online exhibition, all works may be viewed at the gallery by appointment only. Please note that they are not on public display.
Shipping
Worldwide shipping is available for both unframed and framed works.
Domestic (UK) shipping is also available for both unframed and framed works.
Alexandre-Louis Leloir (1843–1884) was one of the most versatile French academic artists of the nineteenth century. Trained at the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris under François Édouard Picot and Alexandre Cabanel, he twice won the Second Prix de Rome before establishing a successful career as a painter of history, genre and portrait subjects. A regular exhibitor at the Paris Salon, he was awarded the Legion of Honour in 1876 and became a founding member of the Société des Aquarellistes Français in 1879.
Although celebrated during his lifetime for his paintings, drawing lay at the heart of Leloir's artistic practice. This online exhibition brings together a remarkable group of works on paper that reveal the extraordinary breadth of his imagination and technical ability. From finely observed portrait studies and expressive figure drawings to historical and biblical scenes, medieval and Renaissance subjects, classical themes, whimsical fantasies, costume designs, landscapes, animals and intimate sketches of family life, the collection offers an unusually complete insight into the creative world of a nineteenth-century academic artist.
Complementing Alexandre-Louis Leloir's drawings are a small group of intimate portraits by his mother, Adèle-Anaïs Toudouze (1822–1889), and his aunt, Héloïse Suzanne Colin (1820–1873). These rare family works providing a fascinating glimpse into one of nineteenth-century France's most distinguished artistic families. Together they add a deeply personal dimension to the exhibition, revealing not only the artist's circle but also the creative environment in which he lived and worked.
More than simply preparatory studies, many of these drawings are fully resolved works in their own right, while others capture the spontaneity of an idea as it first emerged on paper. Together they chart every stage of Leloir's creative process, from fleeting observations and compositional experiments to finished exhibition-quality drawings. They also demonstrate the remarkable versatility that enabled him to move effortlessly between historical reconstruction, narrative genre scenes and moments of quiet everyday observation.
This exhibition offers a rare opportunity to acquire original drawings by an artist whose works are represented in major public collections yet whose works on paper have seldom been available in such depth. Viewed together, they provide an intimate portrait of Leloir's working practice and a fascinating window into the rich visual culture of nineteenth-century France.
