La Montagne Sainte-Geneviève, rue de l'Estacade, plate four from Le Long de la Seine et des Boulevards
1890, published 1910
Medium
Wood engraving in black on cream Japanese tissue
Dimensions
Image: 20.1 × 11.9 cm (7 15/16 × 4 11/16 in.); Sheet: 30 × 23.2 cm (11 13/16 × 9 3/16 in.)
Classification
wood engraving
Department
Prints and Drawings
Museum
Art Institute of Chicago
Accession Number
128526
Art Historical Context
In the heart of Paris's Left Bank, Louis Auguste Lepère's *La Montagne Sainte-Gviève, rue de l'Estacade* captures quiet moment along the Seine in 1890, as plate four from his series *Le Long de Seine et des Boulev*. Published in 1910, this wood showcases Lepère's mastery of a medium revived in late 19th-century France, where artists elevated woodcuts from mere illustration to fine art. Printed in black ink on delicate cream Japanese tissue—a thin, luxurious paper imported during the Japonisme craze—this intimate image (20.1 × 11.9 cm) evokes the bustling yet poetic streets reshaped by Baron Ha...
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...