To Gentilly 1910

Auguste-Louis Lepère made this print called ‘To Gentilly’ with etching in the late 19th or early 20th century. I can imagine him outdoors with his copper plate, stopping to capture the light, the shape of the trees, and the distant city. The marks are so delicate! Look at how he uses these tiny lines to suggest the texture of the leaves and the rough ground. I think about the quiet labor involved, the acid biting into the metal, the artist carefully controlling each line. What was it like to be Lepère? Was he thinking about the Barbizon school? Maybe he was just enjoying being outside. It is like he’s sharing a secret moment, a stolen glance at a world that’s both ordinary and magical. Prints like this always remind me that we're all part of a long chain of makers, each one learning from and responding to what came before. And that’s pretty great, right?