Charles Lepec

CHARLES LEPEC (France, 1830-1890).
"Entourage of a Scandinavian king", 1859.
Oil on canvas.
Relined.
Signed in the lower right corner.
Measurements: 90 x 133 cm.

An agitated retinue formed by a good number of Vikings brandishing weapons and waving flags accompany their king and spouse carrying them in a silk baldachin. The magnificent scene shows the ability of the great French artist Charles Lepec to represent crowds, as well as to detail with a meticulous and precious technique each of the costumes, with their velvets, jewels, armor, iron spears, gold and bronze mounts.... Lepec was a renowned painter specialized in enamels, and the mastery of this technique is also transmitted in the oil technique, achieving bright and contrasting colors. The illumination seems to come from the pigment itself, such is the plastic intensity they transmit. The Scandinavian epic is set in a wooded landscape. The narrative eagerness beats in every detail: the children running alongside pack dogs, the brave soldiers with horned helmets, the oxen pulling the carriage, etc.

French painter and enameller. He is considered the most notable of the French enamel painters of the nineteenth century. Lepec trained as a painter with Hippolyte Flandrin, himself a pupil of Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres, and worked with the enameller Charles Dotin. Lepec exhibited his enamels at the London International Exhibition of 1862, as well as at the subsequent London Exhibition of 1871. It was on this occasion that his work came to the attention of Alfred Morrison (1821-97), who was to become his greatest patron. The Paris Exposition of 1867 was especially important for Lepec's career, as his Renaissance-inspired works earned him a gold medal in enamels and brought new prominence to his work. Lepec was represented in London by jeweler Robert Phillips, who was praised for his expertise. In 1867, the Art Journal marveled that "almost the whole of Lepec's productions have been purchased for England by Mr. Robert Phillips, who was the first in this country to appreciate the great artist, and who must rejoice to witness his accumulated fame."