Minneapolis Institute of Art

The Palace of Justice, Seen from the Notre-Dame Bridge

Auguste Louis Lepère

Date

1899

Medium

Color woodcut on Japanese-style paper

Department

European Art

Institution

Minneapolis Institute of Art

Puddles still dot the pavement, but the rain has stopped and the skies have cleared just in time for sunset. The bridge beyond, with its double-decker buses being drawn by horses, is the Pont au Change, or Bridge of The Exchange. Its name dates back to the 1100s, when King Louis VII required anyone entering the city—and this was the only route—to exchange their foreign money. The silhouetted complex in the distance is the Palace of Justice. With its subtle, blended, liquid colors printed on smooth, lustrous paper, this woodcut displays Auguste Lepère’s mastery of techniques derived from Japanese woodcuts, which were enormously popular in France during the later 1800s. It especially recalls the work of Utagawa Hiroshige, whose atmospheric compositions often involved figures crossing bridges (Mia 17.205.55). Europe

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