The Girl from Biarritz

Paul-Albert Besnard

1901 · Etching; second state of two · 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. In 'La Biarrote', a seated woman in a white chemise and black skirt rests her head against her right hand, leaning her elbow on a patterned pillow; she looks directly out at the viewer.

Artist

Paul-Albert Besnard

Date

1901

Medium

Etching; second state of two

Department

Drawings and Prints

Credit line

The Elisha Whittelsey Collection, The Elisha Whittelsey Fund, 1976