Greeting Grandmother (Le Bonjour à la Grand-mère)
c. 1926
Medium
etching, drypoint, false-biting, softground etching, and roulette on Arches laid paper
Dimensions
plate: 24.8 x 31.7 cm (9 3/4 x 12 1/2 in.) sheet: 32.9 x 44.9 cm (12 15/16 x 17 11/16 in.)
Classification
Department
CG-E
Museum
National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.
Credit
Gift of Mr. and Mrs. Daniel Bell
Accession Number
1996.136.14
Art Historical Context
**Greeting Grandmother (Le Bonjour à la-mère)**, created around 1926 by French artist Albert Besnard (1849–1934), captures a tender domestic moment late in the career of this multifaceted painter, printmaker, and illustrator. Besnard, renowned for his dramatic, painterly style blendingist light with Symbolist expressiveness, served as president of the Société des Beaux-Arts. This intimate scene likely evokes familial warmth in the interwar era, reflecting post-World War I France's renewed appreciation for everyday joys amid societal recovery. What elevates this print is Besnard's virtuoso use...
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...