The Sick Mother

Paul-Albert Besnard

1889 · Etching and drypoint; sixth state of six · 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

1889

Medium

Etching and drypoint; sixth state of six

Department

Drawings and Prints

Credit line

Gift of Mr. and Mrs. David P. Tunick, 1989