Modern Bucolic 1901

Auguste-Louis Lepère made this print called 'Modern Bucolic’ using etching and aquatint. Looking at it, I imagine Lepère carefully layering acid washes on the plate to build up the image. It's a scene of leisure – figures lounging, perhaps picnicking? There’s a kind of dreaminess to it, a haze that softens the edges. You know, making a print is not unlike the experience of painting, it's a dance between intention and accident. I wonder what Lepère was thinking about when he made this? Maybe reflecting on the changing relationship between people and nature in the modern world? Or perhaps simply capturing a fleeting moment of joy and connection. It reminds me that artists are always in conversation with one another, across time and place. This piece invites us to embrace ambiguity and uncertainty and to find our own meaning within it.