Love

Paul-Albert Besnard

1885–87 · Etching; second state of three; 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. L'Amour is from a series of 12 etchings entitled 'La Femme'. Here, viewed in profile, a woman embraces a man who leans against a door at right. Behind them is a balcony which looks out onto a body of water; a small boat sailis across the water toward the horizon.

Artist

Paul-Albert Besnard

Date

1885–87

Medium

Etching; second state of three; rare

Department

Drawings and Prints

Credit line

The Elisha Whittelsey Collection, The Elisha Whittelsey Fund, 1977