Auguste Lepère (1849-1918), Vendéenne In Front Of A Bourrine Near Saint-jean-de-monts

Auguste LEPÈRE
Paris 1849 - Domme 1918

Vendéenne in front of a bourrine, around Saint-Jean-de-Monts
Circa 1890
Mixed media on cardboard
Signed lower left
26 x 39 cm
48 x 60 cm framed
Small stains at the top

   Engraver, painter and illustrator , Auguste Lepère is a multitasking artist for whom drawing was the guiding principle of his career. Considered one of the masters of interpretive engraving, he worked for the greatest illustrated magazines of the century including Magasin Pittoresque, Le Monde Illustré and L'Illustration. With Henri Rivière and Félix Bracquemond, he set out to bring up to date the technique of wood engraving, supplanted by lithography at that time. The discovery of the work of the Japanese artist Hokusai in the 1860s is fundamental to understanding his artistic evolution, both technical and aesthetic.
   In 1892, he purchased a house in the town of Saint-Jean-de-Monts in Vendée. There he founded the Saint-Jean-de-Monts group with his painter friend Charles Milcendeau. The Vendée, its ocean, its pine forests and especially its picturesque hinterland constitute an inexhaustible source of inspiration for its landscapes studied on the motif as our drawing can attest.