Albert BESNARD

Albert Besnard (French 1849-1934) is unequivocally a successful artist.  During his lifetime commissions abound, for private patrons as well as for a variety of administrations.  Besnard also works avidly for himself, painting portraits and landscapes alike, often symbolist in nature and inspired by mythological genres.  He loves working in pastel, but is mostly remembered as an oil painter.  Besnard was also an avid etcher, a realm in which he focused his attention to the modern reality of women, and the darker sides of French society of the Belle Epoque.  He left behind approximately 200 etchings, almost always signed, but nearly never numbered.