Auguste Louis Lepère (1849-1918)

Auguste Louis Lepère was born in Paris (1849), the son of the sculptor François Lepère. Auguste Lepère was taught wood engraving by the English wood engraver Burn Smeeton, to whom he was apprenticed at the age of 13. It was Félix Bracquemond who in 1889 encouraged him to take up etching; Lepère's first 11 etchings were exhibited the following year at the Salon de la Société Nationale des Beaux-Arts. Lepère took a purist's approach to etching, believing that an etcher should be able to achieve his effects entirely through the etching needle; he rarely used aquatint.