Le gueux des campagnes
1895
Medium
woodcut on Japan paper
Classification
Department
CG-E
Museum
National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.
Credit
Gift of Joan Lees in memory of Edward Lees, M.D.
Accession Number
1981.58.1
Art Historical Context
Auguste Lepère's *Le gueux des campagnes (The Countryside Beggar), created in 1895, the poignant essence of rural French life during the fin-de-siècle era. As a master French engraver and illustrator, Lepère specialized in woodcuts that romanticized the countryside, often portraying humble figures like peasants and wanderers against evocative landscapes. This print likely depicts a solitary beggar traversing the fields, embodying the hardships and resilience of rural existence amid France's shift toward industrialization. Rendered as a woodcut on delicate Japan paper—a thin, luxurious sheet i...
About the Artist
Auguste Lepère · 1849–1918
Auguste-Louis Lepère (1849–1918), son of the sculptor François Lepère, was born in Paris on November 30, 1849, into an artistic family that shaped his early path. At age thirteen, he apprenticed in the Paris studio of the English wood engraver Joseph Burn Smeeton, honing his skills in wood engraving until 1867. He furthered his training with drawing classes under Horace Lecoq de Boisbaudran at the...