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The artist's wife and daughter, Suzon c. 1900

Auguste-Louis Lepère

* 1848 in Paris † 1918 in Domme

Coloured chalks heightened with white on cream laid paper. Size of sheet: 20 x 38.2 cm.

Signed in red chalk (lower right).

£ 4,500. -

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Mostly known as a woodcutter and wood engraver, Auguste Lepère is widely regarded as the artist responsible for the revival of classical wood engraving in the end of the 19th century. He studied printmaking with the engraver Joseph Burn-Smeeton in his studio in Paris between 1862 and 1867. He then studied drawing at the School of Lecoq de Boisbaudran, and in 1872, he created a workshop in Paris in partnership with Henri Paillard, producing illustrations for The illustrated World and L'Illustration. Over time, Lepère moved away from the hyper-realistic rendering of tonality that was then the rage and instead turned to the stark delineation of subjects typical of the early period of woodcutting. In 1888, in partnership with other artists, he founded L'Estampe Originale, an effort to restore the tradition of the woodcut, then taken over by the rising new technologies. Our work is a depiction of the artist’s family in a relaxed atmosphere of a garden. The sharply outlined figures of his wife and daughter remind of Lepère’s wood engravings that he became known for. Our work could have been an inspiration for one of his most famous colour woodcuts Bucolique Modern (Modern Pastoral Pleasures) which depicts numerous Parisians in the countryside on the outskirt of Paris.

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