Modern Bucolic
Medium
Woodcut in olive-brown, brown/tan, salmon and peach from two blocks on cream laid paper
Dimensions
Image/plate: 26.3 × 39.1 cm (10 3/8 × 15 7/16 in.); Sheet: 36.2 × 46.9 cm (14 5/16 × 18 1/2 in.)
Classification
woodcut
Department
Prints and Drawings
Museum
Art Institute of Chicago
Accession Number
11623
Art Historical Context
**Modern Bucolic** (1901) by Louis Auguste Lepère captures the charm of rural life through the lens of early 20th-century France. This woodcut, housed in the Art Institute of Chicago's Prints and Drawings, measures an impressive 26.3 × 39.1 cm on cream laid paper, inviting viewers into a serene, pastoral scene reimagined for modern times. Lepère, a prominent French printmaker (1849–1918), was renowned for reviving the woodcut medium, blending traditional craftsmanship with innovative color techniques inspired by Japanese ukiyo-e prints. from just two blocks in olive-brown, brown/tan, salmon,...
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...