8. Auguste Lepère
(1849-1918)
La Route de Saint Gilles (Saint-Jean-de-Monts)

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Lepère, La Route de Saint Gilles

La Route de Saint Gilles (Saint-Jean-de-Monts)

Etching with touches of drypoint, 1911, 248 x 297 mm., Texier-Bernier 387 iv/iv. Fine, rich impression on thin, tan, laid japan paper with large margins, signed and numbered in pencil from the edition of 50. Lepère came to etching from wood engraving, of which he was the consummate master, and was probably introduced to it by Bracquemond. He mastered the new technique quickly, experimented in different and intriguing directions and ultimately settled on a straightforward, fluent but personal style in which etching became quite as natural as drawing or writing. This is a late work by him, exemplifying that style and showing a scene in the Vendée, that area on the west coast of France where he lived for many years after leaving Paris. The tree drawing is distinctive; no one else really drew trees in quite that way. But the print is totally natural and unforced, the work of a man who knew who he was and where he was and was happy with it.