Tavern on the Way to Billancourt 1905

Auguste-Louis Lepère made this print, Tavern on the Way to Billancourt, and like many of his prints, it’s a kind of love letter to the everyday. I’m interested in how he uses line to describe the scene, not just as outline but as tone and texture. It feels like he’s thinking through the image as he makes it. The whole scene is rendered with these thin, wiry lines. Look closely at how the lines thicken and cluster to create shadows and volume, like in the trees. Then notice how they loosen up again to suggest the open sky. The building is so present with the lines on the roof. The whole thing feels incredibly alive, like a sketch from life but with the complexity of a finished work. The marks build up a world. Lepère reminds me a little of Whistler, also a printmaker with a sharp eye for the nuances of city life. But where Whistler is all atmosphere and suggestion, Lepère gives us the nitty-gritty details. He embraces the messiness and complexity of the real world. He gives us an image full of information.