The Light of Assisi The air in Assisi carries a weight that shifts the trajectory of a life. For Ernest Laurent, the experience is not a mere trip but a profound mystical encounter that reorders his entire visual language. Before this, his path was defined by the rigorous training of the École des Beaux-Arts de Paris, where he studied under Ernest Hébert, Lehmann, and Luc Olivier Merson. He moves through the academic world with precision, earning a travel scholarship in 1885 and securing second prize in the Prix de Rome in 1889. His early work shows the technical discipline of a man masterin…