Le Flirt.

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 Acadé mie de France in Rome, the Ecole des Beaux-Arts, the Académie française, the Académie de Saint Luc and the Royal Academy.  His admirers included Edgar Degas and Vincent van Gogh.

This etching is plate 6 of Besnard's 12-plate set, <em>La Femme</em> (Woman). It depicts the downward spiral of a young woman's life from 'Le Flirt' and 'L'Amour' through to 'La Prostitution' and 'Le Suicide'. Translations for once are unnecessary. While the theme seems moralistic and old fashioned, and to a feminist of today exploitative, one senses real compassion on Besnard's part towards his anonymous heroine/victim. He brilliantly uses printing techniques (etching, drypoint and roulette) to convey sensations of gloom and doom. Here the very innocent looking, youthful woman in a white dress and seated on a chaise longue, is being seduced by a considerably older man who eagerly leans forward. Her right hand, held against her head, is firmly grasped by the man, implying resistance overcome. His features are hard to determine because of the prevailing darkness. The domesticity and lack of overt impropriety (far more muted than, for example, Besnard's older contemporary, Félicien Rops), made it a perfect frontispiece for reproduction in <em>Harper's Magazine</em> in May 1930.

See: http://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/693695

Dr Mark Stocker   Curator, Historical International Art   September 2017