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Overview
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. A particularly important influence on him was the great printmaker Alphonse Legros during Besnard's prolonged stint in London (1879-83). Throughout his career Besnard's style remained in between the academic and the 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 Academie de Saint Luc and the Royal Academy. His admirers included Edgar Degas and Vincent van Gogh.
In the etching and drypoint, La femme à la pèlerine (Woman in a cape), a woman viewed in profile in a black dress wearing a cape over her shoulders stands on a balcony, turning her head out towards the viewer and looking downward. Perhaps the best stylistic label for this very stylish print is 'Symbolist'. While the figure is one from daily life, we are left to speculate on the mystery of her thoughts and feelings as depicted. By leaving her expression blank, Besnard encourages this all the more. Where exactly is she standing? Probably on a balcony, but of what kind of building and what is she doing there? The horizontal beam helps to separate her world from ours.
See: http://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/693695
Dr Mark Stocker Curator, Historical International Art September 2017