Dying Woman (La Mourante)
1885
Medium
etching and roulette on wove paper
Dimensions
plate: 17.9 x 24 cm (7 1/16 x 9 7/16 in.) sheet: 30.6 x 38.1 cm (12 1/16 x 15 in.)
Classification
Department
CG-E
Museum
National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.
Credit
Gift of Mr. and Mrs. Daniel Bell
Accession Number
1997.91.3
Art Historical Context
**Dying Woman (Laante)**, created by French artist Albert Besnard in 1885, is a etching and roulette on w paper, measuring 17.9 x 24 cm on the plate. Besnard, a master printmaker of the late 19th, captures the vulnerability of mortality in this intimate work, now housed in the National Gallery of Art's Department of Prints (CG-E) as a generous gift from Mr. and Mrs Daniel Bell. The medium showcases Besnard's innovative technique: etching creates sharp, incised lines on a metal plate for intricate details, while roulette—a toothed wheel—adds soft, textured tones resembling velvet or smoke. Thi...
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...