Notre-Dame, Evening, plate eight from Le Long de la Seine et des Boulevards
1890, published 1910
Medium
Wood engraving in black on cream Japanese tissue
Dimensions
Image: 9.2 × 11.4 cm (3 5/8 × 4 1/2 in.); Sheet: 23.2 × 21.3 cm (9 3/16 × 8 7/16 in.)
Classification
wood engraving
Department
Prints and Drawings
Museum
Art Institute of Chicago
Accession Number
79196
Art Historical Context
In the enchanting series *Le Long de la Seine des Boulevards*, artist and master engraver Louis Auguste Lepère captures the timeless allure of Paris in *Notre-Dame, Evening* (plate eight), created in 1890 and published 1910. This wood engraving depicts the iconic Gothic cathedral at dusk, bathed in the soft glow of twilight along the Seine. Lepère, a leading figure in fin-de-siècle printmaking, documented the city's evolving boulevards and riverbanks with meticulous detail, evoking the bustling energy of Belle Époque Paris amid its historic landmarks. Rendered in black ink on delicate cream J...
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...