Ludovic-Napoléon Lepic

Ludovic Lepic
Etching by Marcellin-Gilbert Desboutin, c.1876

Ludovic-Napoléon Lepic (1839–1889) was a French artist, archaeologist and patron of the arts. He was styled as Vicomte Lepic until his father's death in 1875, when he succeeded to the title of Comte Lepic. He is best remembered today as a friend of Edgar Degas, who included him in some eleven paintings and pastels. He was among the original Impressionist group and later became a recognised marine painter.

Ludovic-Napoléon Lepic was the grandson of the Napoleonic general Louis Lepic, from whom the comital title had descended. His father was Louis-Joseph-Napoléon Lepic (1810–1875), who had a distinguished military career and was a close supporter of Napoléon III.

Destined for a similar career, Ludovic persuaded his father to allow him to train as a painter instead, originally with Gustave Wappers, the official painter of the Belgian king, and later with the animal painter Charles Verlat, who encouraged him to take up etching. Much of Lepic’s early work was in this genre, and he joined the Société des aquafortistes in 1862. The following year, he gained notability for his sentimental etching For the poor, after which he undertook further training from Charles Gleyre and the academic artist .

During the next few years, he took up archaeology and between 1869–76 was a member of the Société d’anthropologie de Paris. In 1872, he founded a museum at Aix-les-Bains and published a ground-breaking illustrated work on prehistoric tools, Les armes et les outils préhistoriques reconstitués. His experiments with etching during this time were equally innovative, and he developed the technique of ‘variable etching’ (eau-forte mobile) where, by varying the ink on the plate, he was able to produce individual results at each printing. He was to teach this technique to his old friend Edgar Degas and the two co-operated on, and duly signed, Degas' large monotype The ballet master of 1874, now in the National Gallery of Art, Washington.