Le Pont Saint-Michel

Art Historical Context

Welcome to the Prints and Drawings gallery, where Louis Auguste Lepère's *Le Pont Saint-Michel*1890) captures the bustling heart of late 19th-century Paris This wood engraving depicts the iconic Pont Saint-Michel bridge spanning the Seine River, a vital link near Notre-Dame Cathedral alive with pedestrians, vendors, and the city's everyday rhythm. Lepère, leading French printmaker (1849–1918), was renowned for his masterful wood engravings that revived the medium as a fine art form during the fin-de-siècle, blending with a poetic touch inspired by Japanese ukiyo-e prints. Crafted in black ink on delicate cream laid Japanese tissue—a thin, luxurious paper that enhances luminosity and detail—the image measures 23.5 × 16.2 cm. Wood engraving allowed Lepère's exceptional precision, rendering intricate architectural lines, rippling water, and atmospheric depth with graver tools on end-grain wood blocks. Folded sheets like this (42.9 × 31.5 cm) were prized by collectors for their portability and intimacy. Housed in the Art Institute of Chicago, this work reflects Belle Époque Paris's urban vitality and the era's fascination with printmaking as an accessible art. Lepère's technique not only preserved fleeting moments but elevated wood engraving to rival painting, offering visitors a window into a vibrant, bygone metropolis.

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...