Stanislas Lepine 1835 - 1892 Wood At Moudon, 1891 - Expertise: René Millet, Paris.

STANISLAS VICTOR ÉDOUARD LEPINE 1835 Caen - 1892 Paris WOODS AT MOUDON, 1891 Oil on canvas 27 x 41 cm (W. 34 x 48 cm) Signed, dated, and located "Bois à Moudon" lower right. Verso: canvas stamped by a Parisian manufacturer. Provenance: Dr. Jean Michaux Collection. Expertise: René Millet, Paris. Painted a year before the artist's death, this work is a characteristic example of Stanislas Lepine's style. Modest in size and restrained in composition, it embodies all that characterizes his work: a keen sensitivity to light, a muted color palette, and an almost intimate relationship with the landscape. It depicts a light-colored forest with a small stream and the silhouette of a town in the background—a scene without spectacle, but imbued with poetic tranquility. Between 1860 and 1875, Lépine frequented Corot's studio in Paris, was influenced by Jongkind, and made his debut at the Salon in 1859. Stanislas Lépine was born in Normandy, where he often returned to paint later in life. Initially a self-taught artist, he met Camille Corot around 1860 and became his student. The collector Hazard supported him during these years, but Lépine received little public attention, although he exhibited his small-format paintings, executed with rapid brushstrokes, at the Salon every year from 1859 to 1889. On the other hand, he was held in high esteem by his fellow artists and sometimes received (primarily with Adolphe-Félix Cals) financial support from Count Armand Doria, with whom he lived and worked at the Château d'Orrouy. He notably attracted the attention of the painter Henri Rouart and the art dealer Paul Durand-Ruel. Although he was not attached to any particular style, he nevertheless participated in the first Impressionist exhibition at Nadar in 1874. He died completely impoverished in Paris in 1892, a few months after completing his only public commission for the Salle des Sciences in the Paris City Hall. His friends had to organize a collection to pay for his funeral expenses. In December 1892, a retrospective of his work was held at the Durand-Ruel Gallery. Lépine's artistic models were Camille Corot and Johan Barthold Jongkind. His work lies between pre-Impressionism and Impressionism and consists mainly of landscape paintings executed with a great love of nature, a sense of light, and a limited color palette. The Seine and depictions of its waters, banks, and so on are central to his subjects. Lépine's paintings are always calm and understated, characterized by their taste and quality. Today, his paintings fetch up to €250,000. Inv. no. 1.3862 900 €