Eve
1886
Medium
etching on laid Van Gelder paper
Dimensions
plate: 17.8 × 13 cm (7 × 5 1/8 in.) sheet: 22.4 × 17.1 cm (8 13/16 × 6 3/4 in.)
Classification
Department
CG-E
Museum
National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.
Credit
Rosenwald Collection
Accession Number
1943.3.1471
Art Historical Context
Albert Besnard's *Eve* (1886) is a captivating etching that evokes the timeless biblical figure, rendered with the artist's characteristic flair for dramatic form and subtle emotion. Created during the late 19th century in France—a period when Symbolism and fin-de-siècle aesthetics were blossoming—Besnard, a prominent painter and printmaker, drew on mythological themes to explore human sensuality and the divine. This intimate plate (17.8 × 13 cm) captures Eve's essence on laid Van Gelder paper, a premium Dutch handmade stock favored by master printmakers for its textured surface that enhances ...
About the Artist
Albert Besnard
Paul-Albert Besnard, known as Albert Besnard, was born on June 2, 1849, in Paris to an artistic family: his father, Louis Adolphe Ferdinand Besnard, was a history painter and pupil of Ingres, while his mother, Marie Louise Pauline Vaillant, was a noted miniaturist trained under Lizinska de Mirbel. Precociously talented, he began his training under Jean-François Brémond before entering the École de...