The Reception (study For The Happy Island), Engraving By Albert Besnard, 1899

Albert Besnard, painter, decorator and engraver; His parents were Louis Adolphe Besnard, a history painter and student of Ingres, and Louise Pauline Vaillant, a renowned miniaturist and student of Lizinska de Mirbel. Albert Besnard studied with Jean-François Brémond and was admitted on March 20, 1866 to the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris, in the studios of Alexandre Cabanel and Sébastienelteil Cornu. In 1874, he won the Grand Prix de Rome with his composition La Mort de Timophane, tyran de Corinthe... No. 118 at Delteil, this plate was engraved for the Société des Amis du Louvre, which offered proofs to its members in 1899, the dry stamp of this Society appears on the lower left margin. Our print is probably one of the rare test proofs of this plate, they can be distinguished by the absence of stamping and the freshness of the copper scratches in the background. Signed lower right and numbered 12/35 on the left. The top right corner is broken just before the plate line.