Ludovic Napoléon Lépic
From the series “Views from the Banks of the Scheldt”
1864-1874
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Ludovic Napoléon Lépic
From the series “Views from the Banks of the Scheldt”
1864-1874
Physical Qualities
Etching with monoprint inking, Sheet: 455 x 815 mm. (17 15/16 x 32 1/16 in.)
Plate: 345 x 743 mm. (13 9/16 x 29 1/4 in.)
Credit Line
Garrett Collection
Object Number
1984.81.12
A consummate printmaker, painter and sculptor, Lépic was descended from a Napoleonic aristocratic family. In 1862 he helped found the Société des Aquafortistes (Society of Etchers), an organization dedicated to the revival of printmaking as a valid art form. By the mid-1870s, Lépic had developed a new technique for etching called l’eau-forte mobile (“changeable etching”), in which the original etched plate was used as a constant for various inking and wiping processes in order to create heightened tonal effects. This etching is one in a series that the artist claimed to have printed 85 times so as to achieve varied manifestations of light and tone (the BMA possesses 19 of these 85 impressions). Through the manipulation of ink, Lépic has created a dense nocturnal atmosphere
exploiting moonlight on water for expressive effect.
T. Harrison Garrett, Baltimore, purchased 1885 (Lugt supp. 2435b); James L. Claghorn, Philadelphia (Lugt supp. 555c).
Henry Ossawa Tanner and the Influence of Paris
Print by Print: Series from Dürer to Lichtenstein
Edgar Degas: A Strange New Beauty
The Rembrandt Effect
The Painterly Print: Monotypes from the Seventeenth to the Twentieth Century, New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1980, ill. p. 21.
Hauptman, Jodi and Richard Kendall, "Degas: A Strange New Beauty," New York: The Museum of Modern Art, 2016, pg. 71, ill.
Béraldi, Henri, Les graveurs du XIX.e siècle; guide de l'amateur d'estampes moderne, 12 vols., Paris: Librarie L. Conquet, 1885-1892, no. 4.
Signed: 1
Inscribed: RECTO: Signed UR in pl.: 'Lepic'; signed LL margin (blue pencil): 'fait et imprimé par Le Pic / 39 epreuve'; LR margin (blue pencil): 'La Lune dans Les Saules'; BLC (graphite): '13.309'; BRC (graphite): 'Reg. 60'. VERSO: LL: violet Claghorn stamp.
Markings: none - none
