Modern Bucolic
Medium
Woodcut in red-brown from one block on cream wove paper
Dimensions
Image/plate: 26.2 × 42.1 cm (10 3/8 × 16 5/8 in.); Sheet: 36.3 × 55.5 cm (14 5/16 × 21 7/8 in.)
Classification
woodcut
Department
Prints and Drawings
Museum
Art Institute of Chicago
Accession Number
11602
Art Historical Context
Louis Auguste Lepère's *Modern Bucolic* (1901) invites viewers into a harmonious blend of rural idyll and artistic innovation. This striking woodcut, printed in warm red-brown ink from a single block on cream wove paper, spans 26.2 × 42.1 cm (image/plate) and is preserved in the Art Institute of Chicago's Prints and Drawings department. The expansive sheet size of 36.3 × 55.5 cm enhances its presence, drawing the eye to the intricate textures born from the wood's grain. A leading French printmaker of the Belle Époque (1849–1918), Lepère championed the revival of original woodcuts, drawing fro...
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...