A consummate printmaker, painter and sculptor, Lépic was descended from a Napoleonic aristocratic family. In 1862 he helped found the Société des Aquafortistes (Society of Etchers), an organization dedicated to the revival of printmaking as a valid art form. By the mid-1870s, Lépic had developed a new technique for etching called l’eau-forte mobile (“changeable etching”), in which the original etched plate was used as a constant for various inking and wiping processes in order to create heightened tonal effects. This etching is one in a series that the artist claimed to have printed 85 times so as to achieve varied manifestations of light and tone (the BMA possesses 19 of these 85 impressions). Through the manipulation of ink, Lépic has created a dense nocturnal atmosphere exploiting moonlight on water for expressive effect.