Accession Number
1938.21

Title
Pont de l'Estacade

Artist(s)
Stanislas Victor Edouard Lépine

Object Creation Date
circa 1880-1885

Medium & Support
oil on canvas

Dimensions
10 13/16 in x 19 1/8 in (27.4 cm x 48.6 cm);21 15/16 in x 30 1/8 in x 4 1/4 in (55.72 cm x 76.52 cm x 10.8 cm)

Credit Line
Gift of the Estate of Mrs. Martin A. Ryerson

Label copy
March 28 2009
Beginning in the 1870s, it was common for painters to take as their subject the new urban spaces opened up by the massive growth of Paris, and throughout his career Lépine, who specialized in depictions of the movement of water and the reflection of light upon it, returned again and again to the banks of the Seine. The Pont de l’Estacade was a bridge that connected the Ile St. Louis with the Right Bank; it was built to shelter boats in the winter from drifting ice. This is one of many paintings of the subject by Lépine.
In 1874 Lépine exhibited a painting of the Seine at the Société Anonyme des Artistes, Peintres, Sculpteurs, Gravures, etc.—the first public showing of what came to be known as the Impressionist painters. What the painters in this group had in common was not a shared “style,” but the fact that they were progressive, independent artists interested in exhibiting outside the state-sponsored Salon system and dissatisfied with the parochialism of Academic and official art. Lépine continued to be a frequent exhibitor at the annual salons, however, and though he did not receive much critical or commercial recognition during his life, he was awarded a first-class medal for a painting of the Pont de l’Estacade at the International Exhibition of 1889, shortly before his death.

Subject matter
Lepine exhibited with the Impressionists and this painting is a good example of this little-studied Impressionist painter. This view of Paris from the river is full of light and delicately described atmosphere. His free handling of paint was derived from direct observation and the example of the Dutch painter Johan Barthold Jongkind.

Physical Description
This painting shows a view of the Seine river in Paris, including the wooden bridge, the Pont de l'Estacade. The foreground is filled is small boats and a dock winch, while the in the distance the bridge and buildings of Paris glow in late afternoon light.

Primary Object Classification
Painting

Collection Area
Western

Rights
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Keywords
boats
bridges (built works)
cityscapes (representations)
rivers