August Louis Lepere, L'eglise de Villeneuve sur Bellot, Seine-et-Marn, 1915

Description

Artist: August Lepere – French (1849-1918)
Title: L'eglise de Villeneuve sur Bellot, Seine-et-Marn
Year: 1915
Publisher: Edmond Sagot (blindstamp, lower … more Artist: August Lepere – French (1849-1918)
Title: L'eglise de Villeneuve sur Bellot, Seine-et-Marn
Year: 1915
Publisher: Edmond Sagot (blindstamp, lower right margin)
Edition: 7/9, from the first state, before the published edition of 50
Medium: etching
Plate size: 7.5 x 10.75 inches.
Sheet size: 10.5 x 13
Framed size: 14.5 x 17.5 inches
Signature: Signed, numbered in lower right, pencil
Annotated: “First State 9 proofs. This one is #7. 1915”
Condition: Excellent
Frame: Very good condition

This etching is a rare first proof before the published edition of 50. It is pencil signed in the lower right. The published edition of 50 was signed in the plate only. The blindstamp of the publisher is also in the lower right. The print is annotated with the title and edition information on the bottom edge of the sheet. The print, mat and frame are in excellent condition. It has a very nice linen mat with liner and a beveled black and gold wood frame.

Auguste Louis Lepère was born in Paris. At the age of thirteen, he began his artistic education in the Paris studio of the engraver Joseph Burn-Smeeton. By the mid-1870s, Lepère had emerged as one of the most renowned printmakers of his time.

Lepère focused mostly on daily life in both his etchings and wood engravings. He is now remembered for his innovations, such as the use of colored paper and the combining of etching and wood engraving on the same print. The last years of Lepère's life were given almost exclusively to wood engraving. In total, his graphic oeuvre consists of over 150 etchings, over 200 wood engravings and 14 lithographs.[1] He died at Domme, aged 68.

Lepère's works are held in collections worldwide including at the Art Institute of Chicago, Dallas Museum of Art, Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, Musee d’Orsay, National Gallery of Art, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Carnegie Museum of Art, Cleveland Museum of Art, Harvard University Art Museums, Indianapolis Museum of Art and Minneapolis Institute of Arts, among others. less