Le Pont Saint-Michel, plate twelve from Le Long de la Seine et des Boulevards
1890, published 1910
Medium
Wood engraving in black on cream Japanese tissue
Dimensions
Image: 12.1 × 8.2 cm (4 13/16 × 3 1/4 in.); Sheet: 22.9 × 14 cm (9 1/16 × 5 9/16 in.)
Classification
wood engraving
Department
Prints and Drawings
Museum
Art Institute of Chicago
Accession Number
128534
Art Historical Context
Step into the bustling heart of late 19th-century Paris *Le Pont Saint-Michel*, twelve from Louis Auguste Lep's evocative series *Le Long de Seine et des Boulev*. Created in 1890 and published in 1910 this wood engraving captures the Pont Saint-Michel bridge spanning the Seine, a vital artery of Parisian life linking the Île de la Cité to the Left Bank. Lepère, a master French engraver and illustrator, immortalized the city's vibrant boulevards and waterways during the Belle Époque, a time of urban renewal under Haussmann's grand designs. Rendered in crisp black lines on luxurious cream Japan...
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...