DOI Heft:
No. 57 (December 1897)
DOI Artikel:Mourey, Gabriel: A French wood-engraver: Auguste Lepère
DOI Seite / Zitierlink: https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.18390#0194
A uguste Lepkre
lithographer of the first order. Needless to say, he
has not an equal command over each of these
branches of art. Nothing could be more interest-
ing than to compare his various ways of treating
the same subject—on wood, on copper, and on
stone. The conception of the subject, the mode
of treatment, even the arrangement of the pic-
ture, are in each case adapted exactly to the
requirements of the material he is about to use.
He will never yield, for instance, to the temptation
to produce upon the stone any of those wood
effects in which he excels, nor allow himself to do
on the copper-plate anything properly belonging to
lithography. This seems natural enough, but it is
no small merit on his part nevertheless, in these
days, when most artists engaged in engraving let
themselves be led away by anything which seems
to promise additional effect, even though it should
involve the mixture and the overlapping of all kinds
of processes. Lepere has too keen a sense of the
fitness of things, knows too well the possibilities
lying within each of these various methods, to fall
into this grave error.
I referred just now to Lepere's new-born leaning
towards decorative sentiment in his work. Not
only has he striven to introduce it into his drawings
and engravings, but evidence of it may be seen in
INCISED LEATHER WORK BY AUGUSTE LEPERE
one of his series of coloured wood-
engravings, after the manner of the
Japanese masters, and also in the four
plates, hors texte, which illustrate the
" Paris Almanach," published by the
firm of Sagot, wherein Lepere has pro-
duced delightful effects by the delicate
use of a fiat colouring.
Lepere has also tried his hand, with
no small success, at pure decorative art
work. That admirable material, leather,
attracted him by its supple richness, and
he has done some excellent bindings.
The first served for the specimen copy
of M. Beraldi's " Paysages Parisiens."
Lepere was encouraged to undertake
•' " ; he work by the celebrated French
• - •" j p.. •-••> binder, Marius-Michel, whose proles
\y , >. ' J // ' (*:T v, sional opinion upon Lepere's interest
ing experiment, quoted by M. Beraldi,
Wfc, ■ •.. '* ! Jf phile of to-day will grind his teeth at it ;
Hll^^^^^^rfiHHHHflHKHiH^^f but in the sixteenth century it would at
once have been hailed with acclama-
incised leather work by auguste lepere tion>» This, as I have said, was Lepere's
'54
lithographer of the first order. Needless to say, he
has not an equal command over each of these
branches of art. Nothing could be more interest-
ing than to compare his various ways of treating
the same subject—on wood, on copper, and on
stone. The conception of the subject, the mode
of treatment, even the arrangement of the pic-
ture, are in each case adapted exactly to the
requirements of the material he is about to use.
He will never yield, for instance, to the temptation
to produce upon the stone any of those wood
effects in which he excels, nor allow himself to do
on the copper-plate anything properly belonging to
lithography. This seems natural enough, but it is
no small merit on his part nevertheless, in these
days, when most artists engaged in engraving let
themselves be led away by anything which seems
to promise additional effect, even though it should
involve the mixture and the overlapping of all kinds
of processes. Lepere has too keen a sense of the
fitness of things, knows too well the possibilities
lying within each of these various methods, to fall
into this grave error.
I referred just now to Lepere's new-born leaning
towards decorative sentiment in his work. Not
only has he striven to introduce it into his drawings
and engravings, but evidence of it may be seen in
INCISED LEATHER WORK BY AUGUSTE LEPERE
one of his series of coloured wood-
engravings, after the manner of the
Japanese masters, and also in the four
plates, hors texte, which illustrate the
" Paris Almanach," published by the
firm of Sagot, wherein Lepere has pro-
duced delightful effects by the delicate
use of a fiat colouring.
Lepere has also tried his hand, with
no small success, at pure decorative art
work. That admirable material, leather,
attracted him by its supple richness, and
he has done some excellent bindings.
The first served for the specimen copy
of M. Beraldi's " Paysages Parisiens."
Lepere was encouraged to undertake
•' " ; he work by the celebrated French
• - •" j p.. •-••> binder, Marius-Michel, whose proles
\y , >. ' J // ' (*:T v, sional opinion upon Lepere's interest
ing experiment, quoted by M. Beraldi,
Wfc, ■ •.. '* ! Jf phile of to-day will grind his teeth at it ;
Hll^^^^^^rfiHHHHflHKHiH^^f but in the sixteenth century it would at
once have been hailed with acclama-
incised leather work by auguste lepere tion>» This, as I have said, was Lepere's
'54