Philippe LELIÈVRE

1929, La Rochelle (Charente-Maritime, France) – 1975, Paris (France)

Title: Woman with Dog
Technique: Soft-ground etching on Arches paper
Date: 1972
Edition: Numbered 97/140 lower left
Signature: Signed lower right
Plate size: 32.2 × 49.3 cm
Paper size: 50.3 × 65.9 cm

An enigmatic and silent scene

In Woman with Dog, Philippe Lelièvre constructs a suspended atmosphere, almost cinematic in its stillness. The background, composed of a shadowy garden and massive trees, contrasts with the discreet yet central presence of a woman holding a dog. To the left, an architectural element—a house with simple geometric forms and illuminated yellow walls—introduces a luminous counterpoint, opposing the built world to the dense, mysterious realm of nature.

Between realism and oneirism

The soft-ground technique imparts a particular texture: the foliage takes on velvety nuances, while the darker passages reinforce the impression of twilight or a meaningful gloom. The female figure, both fragile and dignified, appears absorbed in her thoughts, while the restrained animal suggests a latent tension, a pull between instinct and control, between flight and restraint.

Critical reading

Through this print, Lelièvre questions the relationship between humanity and nature, between domesticity and wildness. The composition belongs to a poetic modernity: not a simple genre scene, but an image oscillating between observation and dream. Woman with Dog reveals the world of an artist attentive to atmosphere, to transitions between light and shadow, and to the mystery of silent presences.

Biographical Note – Philippe Lelièvre

Origins and training

Philippe Lelièvre was born in 1929 in La Rochelle (Charente-Maritime). Attracted to the visual arts from an early age, he trained in Paris and became interested in contemporary printmaking, particularly techniques such as etching and soft-ground etching.

Artistic career

His work belongs to the movement of French printmakers of the 1950s–1970s, a period of technical and expressive renewal in the art of the print. Lelièvre favored compositions combining landscapes, architecture, and human figures, often immersed in enigmatic atmospheres. His engravings, meticulous and refined, reveal a special sensitivity to texture, light, and the density of surfaces.

Style and themes

Lelièvre focused on intimate subjects: garden scenes, female silhouettes, domestic animals, and quiet or deserted urban spaces. His universe is imbued with a poetic melancholy, where every detail seems to carry hidden significance. The use of soft-ground etching, which captures the tactile richness of surfaces, enhances the subtle, muted quality of his art.

Recognition and legacy

Although his life was cut short in Paris in 1975 at the age of 46, Philippe Lelièvre left behind a body of prints that continues to circulate in the art market, bearing witness to a singular and exacting vision. Rare and precious, his work represents that generation of French printmakers who renewed 20th-century engraving through a delicate balance of technical tradition and poetic modernity.