Stanislas Lépine

Collection Adolphe Tavernier, Paris;

His sale, Paris, Hôtel Drouot, 6 March 1900, lot 43;

With Galerie Tempelaere, Paris;

Anonymous sale, Christie's, London, 6 April 1976, lot 3;

Private collection.

R. and M. Schmit, Stanislas Lépine, Catalogue Raisonné de l’œuvre peint, Paris 1993, p. 276, no. 685 repr.

Stanislas Lépine was a nineteenth century artist known for his paintings of urban landscapes. In his youth he copied Jongkind, deriving from this experience a soft, muffled and harmonious palette as well as a taste for marine subjects. His greys are gentle and serene, like those of Jongkind. With his luminous palette of grey-green tones, Lépine paved the way for the Impressionists and indeed he took part in the first Impressionist exhibition at Nadar’s studio in 1874.

Apart from the quality of the palette, Lépine’s painting is a window onto the industrial activities of the period: the ship is described very accurately and human activity is represented by the presence of smoking chimneys and figures.