Albert Besnard
Paris, 1849 – Paris, 1934
Harem Scene, a pasha with two women
Gouache, pencil, heightened with gold on vellum.
Signed and dated ABesnard 1900 lower right.
Provenance:
- Baron Joseph Vitta’s collection (Lyon 1860 – Breuil 1942) ; by descent to his heirs ;
- Paris, Artcurial, 27/03/2009, lot 19
- Private collection
Born in Paris, Albert Besnard was admitted to the studios of Alexandre Cabanel and Sébastien Cornu at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts in Paris in 1866. He won the Grand Prix de Rome in 1874 and soon specialised in portraits, before going on to decorate a number of Parisian monuments, including the Hôtel de Ville, the Sorbonne and the Comédie-Française. He was also an engraver, producing over two hundred etchings. In 1913, he was appointed director of the Villa Medici in Rome, and in 1922 became director of the Beaux-Arts de Paris.
This gouache with Orientalist overtones was part of a series of Oriental scenes commissioned from the artist by baron Joseph Vitta and remained with his heirs until they were sold at auction (Paris, Artcurial, 27 March 2009, lot 19 to 26). Colourful, joyful and extremely modern, these works, influenced by Indian painting and illumination, hold a special place in Besnard’s oeuvre, better known for his pastel portraits, particularly of upper-class women.
In a circular format, Albert Besnard depicts a pasha seated on his ceremonial alcove bed, surrounded by two dancers, in an oriental palace whose terrace opens onto a moonlit nightscape. The artist used the same figures in identical attitudes in another gouache of similar dimensions, this time in a closed interior lit by a hanging lantern (fig. 1)[1].
A great collector, bibliophile and patron, Joseph Vitta owned, among many other works of art, Delacroix’s Death of Sardanapalus (Paris, Louvre Museum) and Rodin’s Autumn (Paris, Rodin Museum). A great friend of lithographer and poster artist Jules Chéret, Vitta entrusted him and Besnard with the decoration of his villa “La Sapinière” in Evian. Besnard also executed a suite of etchings for Vitta on the theme of Eros and Thanatos, which are among his most spectacular engraved works. Vitta bequeathed a great part of his collection, including works by Chéret, to the Musée des Beaux-Arts in Nice.
Condition report – Good condition. Slight undulations of the vellum.
[1] Paris, Artcurial, 27 mars 2009, lot 20.
