Art Of The Day Weekly

#438 - from 7 July 2016 to 7 September 2016


Albert Besnard, Spring Morning, 1886, oil on canvas, 37,2 x 45,9 cm, musée des Beaux-Arts de Reims.

Saving Besnard

EVIAN - His CV is as long as one’s arm: he was director of Villa Medicis in Rome, director of the Ecole nationale des beaux-arts in Paris, a member of the Académie française and was buried with all the national honours. That excess of honour followed him to his tomb: Albert Besnard (1849-1934) today is totally forgotten. This retrospective tries to understand why. It shows a gifted artist capable of drawing up Oriental and picturesque scenes, family portraits, alluring ladies. His work is always well finished and very lively. But his academic vein was disliked by the avant-gardes that came after him, and that anathema still accompanies his reputation.
Albert Besnard, modernités Belle Epoque, at the Palais Lumière, from 2 July to 2 October 2016.

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