DOI Heft:
Nr. 188 (November 1908)
DOI Artikel:Frantz, Henri: Auguste Lepére: painter and engraver
DOI Seite / Zitierlink:https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.20965#0110
Auguste Lepère
this ancient structure, so low and so plain,
exactly calls up the memory of a noble race of
peasantry, ever faithful to their costumes and to
their past. Another of the best of Lepère’s
coloured drawings is now to be seen reproduced in
these pages—Le Quai de la Rue des Tanneurs à
Amiens, a curious view of the old town with its
canal, its irregular, time-worn houses, its tall
steeples in silhouette. One must note in this
“ dessin gouaché d’aquarelle ” the admirable, the
masterly drawing, and the vigour, the precision of
touch which belong to the engraver of high
pretensions.
But before dealing with Lepère’s engravings I
want to say just one word more about his pictures,
because his work as a painter is not so well known
as it deserves to be. We must not forget that the
artist has by no means confined himself to such
things as the magnificent aspect of the Vendéean
groves, with their massive trees, or to some
dazzling sunset over the ocean. He has given us
further many eloquent representations of land-
scapes in the lie de France and in Picardy.
Hence come certain of his most recent canvases,
L'Abreuvoir du Pont Marie and La Poterne des
Peupliers, for example. In the words of M. Roger
Marx, “Il suit les citadins egrénés sur les bords
ombragés de la rivière paisible ; il décrit les
masures délabrées des vieux villages ; il compatit
à la rude peine des ramasseurs de pommes de
terre, courbés sur le sol par une riante après-
midi d’Octobre.”
The interesting thing about the artist’s style is
that he derives at the same time from the
“ naturalists” and from the impressionists. Having
begun to produce at the period when “naturalism”
was most in favour, Lepère soon came to realise
the errors of absolute realism. “ When,” as
he himself wrote on one occasion, “the artist is
under the obligation to paint simply from Nature
he loses little by little his regard for compo-
sition and the notion of effect; then, the habit
becoming mischievously strong, he ends by not
regarding Nature attentively, being content to
paint the ‘chic,’ or to imitate Nature in its
smaller aspects. . . . Does this mean that the
BY AUGUSTE LEPÈRE
this ancient structure, so low and so plain,
exactly calls up the memory of a noble race of
peasantry, ever faithful to their costumes and to
their past. Another of the best of Lepère’s
coloured drawings is now to be seen reproduced in
these pages—Le Quai de la Rue des Tanneurs à
Amiens, a curious view of the old town with its
canal, its irregular, time-worn houses, its tall
steeples in silhouette. One must note in this
“ dessin gouaché d’aquarelle ” the admirable, the
masterly drawing, and the vigour, the precision of
touch which belong to the engraver of high
pretensions.
But before dealing with Lepère’s engravings I
want to say just one word more about his pictures,
because his work as a painter is not so well known
as it deserves to be. We must not forget that the
artist has by no means confined himself to such
things as the magnificent aspect of the Vendéean
groves, with their massive trees, or to some
dazzling sunset over the ocean. He has given us
further many eloquent representations of land-
scapes in the lie de France and in Picardy.
Hence come certain of his most recent canvases,
L'Abreuvoir du Pont Marie and La Poterne des
Peupliers, for example. In the words of M. Roger
Marx, “Il suit les citadins egrénés sur les bords
ombragés de la rivière paisible ; il décrit les
masures délabrées des vieux villages ; il compatit
à la rude peine des ramasseurs de pommes de
terre, courbés sur le sol par une riante après-
midi d’Octobre.”
The interesting thing about the artist’s style is
that he derives at the same time from the
“ naturalists” and from the impressionists. Having
begun to produce at the period when “naturalism”
was most in favour, Lepère soon came to realise
the errors of absolute realism. “ When,” as
he himself wrote on one occasion, “the artist is
under the obligation to paint simply from Nature
he loses little by little his regard for compo-
sition and the notion of effect; then, the habit
becoming mischievously strong, he ends by not
regarding Nature attentively, being content to
paint the ‘chic,’ or to imitate Nature in its
smaller aspects. . . . Does this mean that the
BY AUGUSTE LEPÈRE