Paul-Albert Besnard
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From
Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Paul-Albert Besnard (2 June 1849 - 4 December 1934 ) was a French
painter.
He was born in Paris and
studied at the École des Beaux-Arts, studied with Jean Bremond and
was influenced by Alexandre Cabanel. He won the Prix de Rome in 1874
with the painting Death of Timophanes
Until about 1880 he followed the
academic tradition, but then broke away completely, and devoted
himself to the study of colour and light as conceived by the
impressionists. The realism of this group never appealed to his bold
imagination, but he applied their technical method to ideological
and decorative works on a large scale, such as his frescoes at the
Sorbonne, the Ecole de Pharmacie, the ceiling of the
Comédie-Française (main theatre in Paris), the Salle des Sciences at
the Hôtel de Ville, the mairie of the Ier arrondissement, and the
chapel of Berck hospital, for which he painted twelve Stations of
the Cross in an entirely modern spirit.
A great virtuoso, he achieved
brilliant successes alike in watercolour, pastel, oil and etching,
both in portraiture, in landscape and in decoration. A good example
of his daring unconventionality is his portrait of Madame Réjane;
and his close analysis of light can be studied in his picture Femme
qui se chauffe at the Luxembourg in Paris.
In 1912, he became a member of the
French Académie des Beaux-Arts and became director of the École des
Beaux Arts in 1922. In 1924 he was member of the Académie française
(Seat #13), He was represented in the official exhibition of French
art held in the United States in 1919-20 by a symbolic portrait of
Cardinal Mercier. An important exhibition of his works was shown in
different cities of the United States in 1924.
Portrait of Madame Roger Jourdain, 1886
