At the present date Monsieur Martignac, Paris, possesses several splendid canvases of Besnard’s, notably “l’Espagnole,” “Le Regard,” “l’Automne” and “La Femme de Biarritz.”
In America the purchasers of Besnard have been few. One of the most interesting of his paintings is at Baltimore, in Mr. George Vanderbilt’s collection.
Paris, appreciative of her distinguished son, has confided to him the most important of the decorations now under the city’s consideration—the ceiling of the Théâtre Français and the cupola of the Petit Palais. Let the amateur of art, whose list is already long, add these mural decorations which are now in process of construction, and it will be seen that the art of interior painting is not extinct in France, and that these tasks have been happily consigned to the man best fitted at present to perform them.
Besnard is at present engaged upon the ceiling of the Théâtre Français. Its dimensions are vast, covering a surface of 273 metres. His subject, already composed in miniature, is as follows:
The god Apollo, in his chariot, draws his horses back on their haunches whilst he salutes the great masters of drama—Corneille, Racine, Molière, Victor Hugo, all of whom are seated at the top of a flight of temple steps. Behind the god are a group of the Hours, and in front, the Muses. On the last step of the temple is a charming group and distinctive of Besnard. The female figure of Time reposes against
DEATH
another figure representing Truth—a most subtle and agreeable image.