A Monday, Entry into Prés-Saint-Gervais

Art Historical Context

**A Monday, Entry into Prés-Gervais** (1893) is a delicate etching by French artist Louis Auguste Lepère, master printmaker celebrated for his intimate portrayals of Parisian life. Created on cream laid paper, this small-scale work—measuring just 13 ×12.1 cm—captures the everyday rhythm of workers streaming into the working-class suburb of Le Pré-Saint-Gervais on a typical Monday morning. During the Belle Époque, as Paris industrialized, such scenes highlighted the city's expanding urban fringes, where factories and commuters blurred the line between countryside and metropolis. Lepère's etching technique shines here, with its intricate lines and subtle tonal variations evoking the atmosphere of a bustling entryway. Etching, an intaglio process where acid etches designs into a metal plate, allowed him to achieve a painterly depth rare in prints, blending Realism with a poetic touch. His style drew from 19th-century French printmaking traditions, influenced by artists like Félix Buhot, emphasizing texture and light on everyday subjects. Housed in the Art Institute of Chicago's Prints and Drawings Department, this piece offers a window into late-19th-century social dynamics, reminding us of the unsung vitality of ordinary lives amid France's modern transformation. A gem for etching enthusiasts!

About the Artist

Louis Auguste Lepère · 1849–1918

Louis-Auguste Lepère (1849–1918) was born in Paris on November 30 to the sculptor François Lepère, immersing him early in the artistic world. At age thirteen, he apprenticed in the studio of the English wood engraver Joseph Burn-Smeeton, training there from 1862 to 1867, and later attended drawing courses under Horace Lecoq de Boisbaudran at the Petite École (now École nationale supérieure des art...