A painter, draughtsman and printmaker, Louis-Auguste Lepère began his career as an illustrator and engraver for various publications, including the Magasin Pittoresque, La Revue illustrée and L’Illustration, while he also contributed illustrations to the magazines Graphic and Black and White in London and Harper’s in America.

In the early part of his career he produced wood engravings characterized by a fine and delicate line. Around 1889 he took up the woodcut*, and in the same year produced several prints of views of monuments of Paris erected for the Exposition Universelle*. In 1894 Lepère entered into an exclusive arrangement with the print dealer and publisher Edmond Sagot, who from then onwards rece...