Au Dormoir de Lantara Possibly 1908

This small etching by Auguste-Louis Lepère pulls you right into a monochrome world. You can almost smell the damp earth. Looking at it, I imagine Lepère outside with his tools, carefully scratching lines onto the plate, building up this scene bit by bit. What’s amazing to me is how he creates such a dense image with a limited palette. The trees feel almost alive, like they're reaching out, telling a story. The texture is really something, isn’t it? You can practically feel the roughness of the bark, the softness of the grass. It makes me think about how artists are always looking at each other, borrowing ideas, responding to what came before. Lepère, in his own way, was part of that conversation. He was inviting us to slow down, to really see the world around us, in all its messy, beautiful detail. It’s a reminder that art isn’t just about what you see, but how you see it.