Storm on the Dune, Vendee (L'orage sur la dune, Vendee)
1826 to 1850
Medium
etching
Classification
Department
CG-E
Museum
National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.
Credit
Rosenwald Collection
Accession Number
1943.3.5554
Art Historical Context
"Storm on the Dune,ée (L'orage sur la dune, Vendée)" is a captivating etching by French artist Auguste Lepère, between 1826 and1850. Housed in the National Gallery of Art's Rosen Collection (Department CG-E), this print exemplifies the power of 19th-century printmaking to evoke nature's raw drama. Lepère, renowned for his intricate landscapes and urban scenes, depicts the turbulent clash of storm clouds over the windswept dunes of France's Vendée coast—a region famed for its rugged Atlantic shores and shifting sands. Etching, the work's medium, allowed Lepère to achieve remarkable depth and t...
About the Artist
Auguste Lepère · 1849–1918
Auguste-Louis Lepère (1849–1918), son of the sculptor François Lepère, was born in Paris on November 30, 1849, into an artistic family that shaped his early path. At age thirteen, he apprenticed in the Paris studio of the English wood engraver Joseph Burn Smeeton, honing his skills in wood engraving until 1867. He furthered his training with drawing classes under Horace Lecoq de Boisbaudran at the...