Léon Lhermitte (1844-1925), who trained with Horace Lecoq de Boisbaudran (a teacher whose pupils included Henri Fantin-Latour and Alphonse Legros), was a painter, draughtsman, pastellist and printmaker best known for his scenes of rural life painted in a Naturalist style. He enjoyed success at the Salon as well as in London; van Gogh admiringly referred to him as ‘Millet the Second’. Later in life he devoted himself primarily to pastel. He was a prolific etcher, using the medium to produce both original works as well as reproductions of his own paintings and pastels.

This etching depicts a relatively unusual subject in Lhermitte’s oeuvre, that of a church interior; the subject is more common in the work of Lhermitte’s contemporary, Alphonse Legros, and the style exhibits marked similarities to Legros’s as well. The print was issued in The Portfolio, September 1881, and was a commission from the print publisher Seeley. It is based on an untraced charcoal drawing, from 1878, which was exhibited at the Dudley Gallery, London ‘Black and white exhibition’ in 1878 (no.327) [See Pelley Fonteny, p. 444, no. 687 (dessins non localisés)].

Grosvenor Prints, London, from whom purchased by Donato Esposito, 24 October 2009; Gift of Donato Esposito in memory of Professor John House, 2012

Bibliotheque Nationale, Departement des Estampes, Inventaire du Fonds Francais, apres 1800 (IFF), Paris 1930-1967
cat. no. 17
p. 308
1967, Vol. 14

Léon Augustin Lhermitte (1844–1925): Catalogue raisonné
cat. no. 35
p. 498

Inscription: inscription : printed : lower left within image & recto : : L. L'hermitte