Re-entry of the Procession into Nantes Cathedral
Medium
Etching and drypoint on cream wove paper
Dimensions
Image: 16.6 × 26.8 cm (6 9/16 × 10 9/16 in.); Plate: 19.1 × 27.3 cm (7 9/16 × 10 3/4 in.); Sheet: 23.9 × 32.1 cm (9 7/16 × 12 11/16 in.)
Classification
etching
Department
Prints and Drawings
Museum
Art Institute of Chicago
Accession Number
46320
Art Historical Context
In the etching *Re-entry of the Procession into Nantes Cathedral* (1901), French artist Louis Auguste Lepère captures a moment of solemn grandeur at the Cathedral of St. Peter and St. Paul in Nantes. Created during the Belle Époque, this print depicts a religious procession returning to the Gothic masterpiece, a symbol of French Catholic heritage completed in the 15th century. Lepère, renowned for his meticulous renderings of urban architecture and everyday life, draws viewers into the scene's rhythmic flow of figures and ornate details, evoking the pageantry of turn-of-the-century France. Le...
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...