Alphonse Legros’s portrait of the French sculptor Jules Dalou (1838–1902) was made as part of a series of fellow artists. At the time Legros made this portrait, Dalou was in political exile in London following his support of the Paris Commune, a radical socialist government that briefly took control at the end of the Franco-Prussian War (1870–71). In May 1877, this portrait was published in the art periodical "The Portfolio," whose editor, Philip Gilbert Hamerton (1834–1894), promoted printmaking, especially etching.