Joseph Louis François Lépine was a pupil of Louis Cabié in Bordeaux and then attended the Académie Julian in Paris. He began using the pointillist technique in 1900, and his paintings became increasingly luminous. He was interested in light effects, changing with the time of day and the season, on the stonework of the cathedrals of Rouen and Amiens. He exhibited at the Salon de Paris from 1897, and later at the Salon de la Société Nationale des Beaux-Arts, of which he became a member in 1901. A retrospective of his work was held in Mérignac in 1985.