The Socialite Victory or The Worldy Triumph

Paul-Albert Besnard

1886 · Etching; first state of three; 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. This etching portrays the triumph of the elegant and beautiful woman who, after some months, becomes known as "the most beautiful woman in Paris". She appears here under electric lamps, leaving one of many soirées she attends. The master of the house bows down and kisses her hand while a valet searches for her jacket.

Artist

Paul-Albert Besnard

Date

1886

Medium

Etching; first state of three; very rare

Department

Drawings and Prints

Credit line

The Elisha Whittelsey Collection, The Elisha Whittelsey Fund, 1967