Seated Female Figures, Studies for Burial in the Vendeen Marsh

Auguste Lepère was a successful printmaker, illustrator, and pastelist. His wood engravings of Paris are celebrated for their technical precision and extraordinarily rich and realistic detail. He was also skillful in etching, a medium he took up in earnest later in his career, beginning in 1889. Lepère was a critical figure in promoting the art of the original print in France in the late nineteenth century by organizing the Société de l’Estampe Originale in 1888, which published albums of original single-sheet prints. This drawing, with four studies of seated female figures, relates to a 1901 etching by the artist, Burial in the Vendeen Marsh (Un enterrement dans le marais vendeen). The print represents a funeral procession by boat in the rural Vendée region in France. The women in the drawing appear in the print with very few changes, represented among the mourners in the three boats. The artist purchased a house in the Vendée region in 1892 and spent his summers there, finding inspiration for his prints and drawings in the landscape and rural community.