A sculpture by Charlotte Besnard for the Philadelphia Museum of Art

26/9/23 - Acquisition - Philadelphia Museum of Art - A true glory of French painting during the Belle Époque, Albert Besnard had to wait until 2016 to be truly rescued from the oblivion to which he had unfortunately ended up falling, thanks to a courageous and ambitious retrospective exhibition shown at the Palais Lumière in Evian and then at the Petit Palais in Paris (see article). We can only hope that his wife, the sculptor Charlotte Dubray, will also benefit from renewed interest. At last year’s Tefaf Maastricht (see article), British gallery owner Stuart Lochhead offered an irresistible glazed ceramic (ill. 1) depicting a child playing with an apple, exhibited next to Félicie de Fauveau’s bust portrait of the Duke of Bordeaux, which has since joined the collections of the Currier Museum of Art (see news item of 26/5/23). Another North American institution has also set its sights on this charming child sculpture: the Philadelphia Museum of Art [1], in Pennsylvania!

Charlotte Besnard signed and dated her work in 1886, but we can also make out the signature of Émile Muller’s company and the date 1894, preceding the first exhibition of the sculpture (ill. 2 to 5), which was therefore unveiled at the famous inaugural event of gallery owner Siegfried Bing in 1895. The dealer was already exhibiting the sculptor, who is largely…