Provins (Seine et Marne)
1910
Medium
etching
Classification
Department
CG-E
Museum
National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.
Credit
Rosenwald Collection
Accession Number
1943.3.5559
Art Historical Context
**Provins (Seine et Mar)**, a delicate etching by French artist Auguste Lepère from 1910, invites visitors to explore the medieval charm of Provins, a hilltop town in France's Seine-et-Marne. Renowned for its well-preserved ramparts, churches, and half-timbered houses—later a UNESCO World Heritage site—ins symbolized France's rich architectural heritage at the turn of the century. Lepère, a master printmaker active in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, captured such scenes with a romantic realism, preserving vanishing rural traditions amid rapid modernization. Created as an intaglio prin...
About the Artist
Auguste Lepère · 1849–1918
Auguste-Louis Lepère (1849–1918), son of the sculptor François Lepère, was born in Paris on November 30, 1849, into an artistic family that shaped his early path. At age thirteen, he apprenticed in the Paris studio of the English wood engraver Joseph Burn Smeeton, honing his skills in wood engraving until 1867. He furthered his training with drawing classes under Horace Lecoq de Boisbaudran at the...