Born in the picturesque town of Rochefort-sur-Mer on the west coast of France in 1867, Lepine begun painting in his mid-twenties. Having initially trained as a lawyer in Bordeaux, Lepine put his academic studies behind him and became a pupil of Louis Alexandre Cabié, who influenced the young artist to paint the local landscape in the manner of the Barbizon School. Against Cabié’s more traditional direction, in 1897 Lepine moved to Paris, the hotbed of artistic experimentation and progression, to study at the Académie Julian. After the turn of the century, with his popularity increasing, Lepine began to travel across France, painting the coastal towns of Brittany, and villages throughout the French countryside. Lepine joined the Société des Indepéndants in 1905 and in the preceding years maintained a close relationship with a number of avant garde artists in Paris including Marcel Gromaire, Henri Matisse and Paul Signac. Lepine embraced the pointillist technique. It was in Paris that Lepine discovered the art of the Impressionists, and adopted the technique of the Divisionsts. In 1895 his first paintings were accepted into the Salon de la Société des Amis des Arts de Bordeaux and at the turn of the century Lepine exhibited frequently at the Salon d’Automne.