Flora

Paul-Albert Besnard

1899 · Etching; third state of four; very rare · Drawings and Prints

Paul-Albert Besnard (1849-1934) was a student of the academic painter Alexandre Cabanel (1823-1889), won the prix de Rome in 1874 and was among the founders of the Société Nationale in 1890. Throughout his career his style remained in between academic and impressionistic. During the last thirty years of his life he held important positions in the Académie de France in Rome, the Ecole des Beaux-Arts, the Académie française, the Académie de Saint Luc and the Royal Academy. 'La Flore de Le Gros' was one of four etchings by Besnard which illustrated the 1899 republication of 'Les Perles Rouges' by Comte Robert de Montesquiou (1855-1921). It depicts a sculpture of Flora on a plinth, holding a garland of flowers in her left hand while leaves fall on to her from a chestnut tree on her right.

Artist

Paul-Albert Besnard

Date

1899

Medium

Etching; third state of four; very rare

Department

Drawings and Prints

Credit line

The Elisha Whittelsey Collection, The Elisha Whittelsey Fund, 1976